NCJ Number
235847
Journal
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice Volume: 27 Issue: 3 Dated: August 2011 Pages: 278-298
Date Published
August 2011
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This article examines Hispanic immigration and hate crime.
Abstract
In recent years, Hispanic immigration to the United States has become a politically charged public issue, with significant consequences for immigration policies, communities, individual immigrants, and the U.S. residents who resemble them in language, customs, and appearance. The authors examine one possible collateral consequence of the fear and tension surrounding recent immigration trends, anti-Hispanic hate crime. Drawing on traditional theories of intergroup conflictand particularly minority threat theorythe authors hypothesize that recent changes in Hispanic immigration are positively related to hate crimes targeting Hispanics. The authors find support for this hypothesis in a multivariate state-level panel analysis of anti-Hispanic hate crime from 2000 to 2004. Other predictions, however, are not supported. The authors conclude that the impact of immigration patterns on hate crime is an important area for continued criminological inquiry and that the notion of cultural threat should receive greater attention as studies of intergroup conflict move beyond the BlackWhite dichotomy. (Published Abstract)