Examining Hate-Motivated Aggression: A Review of the Social Psychological Literature on Hate Crimes as a Distinct Form of Aggression

• NCJ Number: 192583
• Journal: Aggression and Violent Behavior Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Dated: January-February 2002 Pages: 85-101
• Author(s): Kellina M. Craig
• Date Published: 2002
• Length: 17 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Literature Review
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article reviews the literature on hate crimes in social psychology and other related fields, with the aim of identifying common factors across the various types of hate crimes, so as to clarify existing claims about the nature of hate-motivated crimes, their prevalence, and causes.

Abstract

A hate crime is an illegal act that involves intentional selection of a victim based on a perpetrator's bias or prejudice against the actual or perceived status of the victim. Hate crimes represent a unique form of aggression that includes the intent to harm, but also serves symbolic and instrumental functions for perpetrators. In addition to the symbolic function of hate crimes, there is also an instrumental function. Hate crimes affect the actions of members of victims' and perpetrators' groups. Other characteristics of hate crimes are the presence of multiple perpetrators, victims' increased psychological and emotional distress, deteriorating social relations, and victims as members of negatively stereotyped groups. There can be a number of causes of hate crime, including a deep-seated resentment of minority persons, governmental decline in the protection of civil rights, and actual or imagined economic competition and frustration. In discussing the characteristics of hate-crime perpetrators, this paper addresses membership in organized hate groups, religious values, psychopathology and deviancy, the authoritarian personality and right-wing authoritarianism, and factors associated with the decision to join a hate group. Victims of hate crimes are targeted because of their ethnic or minority status, sexual orientation, gender, religion, disability, or economic status. There is ambiguity concerning which type of target group experiences the most frequent rates of hate-crime victimization, and there are different postvictimization experiences for victims. 60 references