Hate Crime among Latin American Adolescents: Comparing Brazil and Mexico

• In Event: ISRD Panel 4: Digital Deviance and Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Online Crime

Abstract

A hate crime is an offence motivated by revenge or hostility based on a person's/groups’ race, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or disability. Such crimes are related to processes of radicalisation, and young people make up the group considered most susceptible to radicalisation in the context of exposure to extremist ideas. In Latin America, there is evidence of an increase in radicalisation among young people after the pandemic, and concern about their involvement in extremist acts. Considering data from Brazil (Br) and Mexico (Mx), obtained in the scope of ISRD4, the aim of this paper was to verify how prevalent are Hate Offences, testing potential effects of social and psychological variables as predictors. Considering the sample as a whole, in the offline context, only 0.6% of adolescents in Br and 0.5% in Mx reported “carrying a weapon for revenge”. However, considering just the adolescents who reported carrying a weapon, the proportion of those who did so motivated by revenge was 6.42% and 3.96%, respectively. Only 2.2% in Br and 1.6% in Mx reported “assault revenge” (considering only the number who attacked someone, the proportion of the revenge attacks was 55.13% and 32.56%). In the on-line context, only 0.7% of teenagers in Br and 0.8% in Mx reported “intimate posting motivated by revenge” (considering just who reported posting negative content on the internet, the proportions were 40% and 23.5%, respectively). Only 1% of teenagers in Br and 0.6% in Mx revealed “hacked internet accounts to get revenge” (considering just who reported hacking, the proportions were 15.1% and 15.5%). Focus on “hate speech”, the proportions were 4.3% of adolescents in Br and 7.5% in Mx.

Authors

• Marina Rezende Bazon, University of São Paulo

• Vinicius Frayze David, University of São Paulo

• Caio Santos Andrade, University of São Paulo

• Maria Laura Polizeli Spagnollo, University of São Paulo

• Áurea Esther Grijalva Eternod, University of Guadalajara, Mexico