Cultural Funding and Hate Crime: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Examining the Relationship Between Arts and Hate

• In Event: Community-Based Interventions: Justice and Reentry

Abstract

The study investigated the relationship between arts and hate crime by utilizing the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs’ cultural development funding data and the New York City Police Department’s hate crime data and crime complaint data. After conducting multiple statistical analyses to examine the relationship between cultural funding and hate crime using the data from 2020 to 2023, the findings show that there is a positive relationship between the amount of cultural development funding and hate crime in New York City. The results also show that, where there are more hate crimes against people of Asian descent, there is more funding for arts and cultural organizations that are Asian-focused. We posit that in the areas with more cultural funding from the government, the awareness of artistic citizenship in the community is higher, resulting in more hate crime reporting. Further research and practices are recommended.

Authors

• Michael C. Liu, Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY

• Sung-suk Violet Yu, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY

• Leo Huiyao Liao, The Chinese University of Hong Kong