Hate Crime and Other Crime: Toward a Nexus of Understanding

• In Event: The Pervasive Effects of Hate Crime Offending

Abstract

The literature on hate crime and hate crime offenders has been developing over the past three decades. This has led to a growing understanding of, among other things, the causalities and correlates of hate crime offending. While this understanding has been drawn from multiple fields, such as criminology, sociology, and psychology, we still lack thorough explorations of how hate crime offending relates to other kinds of attitudes and behavior. This paper will discuss the relationship between hate crime offending, terrorism, and extremism in general. Relying in part on a multinational study of political views and attitudes toward LGBT people, I’ll suggest that hate crime offending is best understood within a larger context of beliefs and actions.

Author

• Phyllis B. Gerstenfeld, California State University, Stanislaus