For Whom Does Hate Crime Hurt More? A Comparison of Consequences of Victimization Across Motives and Crime Types

Abstract

Hate crimes have been found to have more severe consequences than other parallel crimes that were not motivated by the offenders’ hostility toward someone because of their real or perceived difference. Many countries today have hate crime laws that make it possible to increase the penalties for such crimes. The main critique against hate crime laws is that they punish thoughts. Instead, proponents of hate crime laws argue that sentence enhancement is justified because hate crimes cause greater harm. This study compares consequences of victimization across groups of victims to test for whom hate crimes hurt more. We analyzed data that were collected through questionnaires distributed to almost 3,000 students at Malmö University, Sweden, during 2013. The survey focused on students’ exposure to, and experiences of, hate crime. A series of separate logistic regression analyses were performed, which analyzed the likelihood for reporting consequences following a crime depending on crime type, perceived motive, repeat victimization, gender, and age. Analyzed as one victim group, victims of hate crime more often reported any of the consequences following a crime compared with victims of parallel non–hate-motivated crimes. And, overall victims of threat more often reported consequences compared with victims of sexual harassment and minor assault. However, all hate crime victim groups did not report more consequences than the non–hate crime victim group. The results provide grounds for questioning that hate crimes hurt the individual victim more. It seems that hate crimes do not hurt all more but hate crimes hurt some victims of some crimes more in some ways.

Keywords

hate crime victimization Sweden consequences

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Andersson

Mellgren

(2015). Anmälningsbenägenhet vid utsatthet för hatbrott [Tendency to report hate crime victimization]. Socialvetenskaplig Tidskrift, 3-4, 283-301.

Andersson

Mellgren

(2016a). Consequences of bias-motivated victimization among Swedish university students with an immigrant or minority background. Irish Journal of Sociology, 24, 226-250.

Andersson

Mellgren

(2016b). Studenters utsatthet och upplevelser av hatbrott [Students experiences and exposure to hate crime] (FoU-rapport 2016: 1). Malmö, Sweden: Malmö University.

Avison

W. R.

Turner

J. R.

(1988). Stressful life events and depressive symptoms: Disaggregating the effects of acute stressors and chronic strains. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 29, 253-264.

Barnes

Ephross

P. H.

(1994). The impact of hate violence on victims: Emotional and behavioral responses to attacks. Social Work, 39, 247-251.

Bell

J. G.

Perry

(2015). Outside looking in: The community impacts of anti-lesbian, gay, and bisexual hate crime. Journal of Homosexuality, 62, 98-120.

Bowling

(1998). Violent racism: Victimization, policing and social context. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Carney

K.M.

(2001). Rape: The paradigmatic hate crime. St. Johns Law Review, 75(2), 315-355.

Chakraborti

Garland

(2012). Reconceptualizing hate crime victimization through the lens of vulnerability and “difference.” Theoretical Criminology, 16, 499-514.

10.

Craig-Henderson

Sloan

L. R.

(2003). After the hate: Helping psychologists help victims of racist hate crime. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10, 481-490.

11.

Craig

K. M.

(1999). Retaliation, fear, or rage: An investigation of African American and white reactions to racist hate crimes. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 14, 138-151.

12.

Dzelme

(2008). Psychological effects of hate crime—Individual experience and impact on community. Latvian Centre for Human Rights. Retrieved from http://cilvektiesibas.org.lv/site/attachments/30/01/2012/Naida_noziegums_ENG_cietusajiem_Internetam.pdf

13.

Ehrlich

H. J.

(1992). The ecology of antigay violence. In Herek

G. M.

Berrill

(Eds.), Hate crimes: Confronting violence against lesbians and gay men (pp. 105-122). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

14.

Ehrlich

H.J.

Larcom

B.E.K.

Purvis

R.D.

(1994). The traumatic effects of ethnoviolence. Towson, MD: Prejudice Institute, Center for the Applied Study of Ethnoviolence.

15.

Fattah

(2010). The evolution of a young, promising discipline: sixty years of victimology, a retrospective and prospective look. In Shoham

S.G

Knepper

Rett

(Eds.), International handbook of victimology (pp. 43-94). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

16.

Funnell

(2013). Racism by stealth: The construction of racist hate crimes. Academic dissertation, Cardiff University. Retrieved from http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/24021

17.

Funnell

(2015). Racist hate crime and the mortified self: An ethnographic study of the impact of victimization. International Review of Victimology, 21, 71-83.

18.

Garcia

McDevitt

Balboni

(2002). Psychological and behavioral effects of bias and non-bias motivated assault. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice.

19.

Garland

Spalek

Chakraborti

(2006). Hearing lost voices: Issues in researching: “Hidden” minority ethnic communities. British Journal of Criminology, 46, 423-437.

20.

Garland

(2012). Difficulties in defining hate crime victimisation. International Review of Victimology, 18(1), 25-37.

21.

Garland

J. M.

Hodkinson

(2014). “F**king Freak! What the hell do you think you look like?” Experiences of Targeted Victimisation Among Goths and Developing Notions of Hate Crime. The British Journal of Criminology, 54(4), 613-631.

22.

Garofalo

(1997). Hate crime victimization in the United States. In Davis

R. C.

Lurigio

A. J.

Skogan

W. G.

(Eds.), Victims of crime (pp. 134-145). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

23.

Herek

G. M.

Cogan

J. C.

Gillis

J. R.

Glunt

E. K.

(1997). Correlates of internalized homophobia in a community sample of lesbian and gay men. Journal of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, 2, 17–25.

24.

Herek

G. M.

Gillis

J. R.

Cogan

J. C.

Glunt

E. K.

(1997). Hate crime victimization among lesbian, gay and bisexual adults: Prevalence, psychological correlates and methodological issues. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 12, 19-215.

25.

Herek

G. M.

Gillis

J. R.

Cogan

J. C.

(1999). Psychological sequelae of hate-crime victimization among lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 67(6), 945-951.

26.

Iganski

(2001). Hate crimes hurt more. American Behavioral Scientist, 45, 626-638.

27.

Iganski

(2002). The hate debate: Should hate be punished as a crime? London, England: Profile Books.

28.

Iganski

(2008). Hate crime and the city. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.

29.

Iganski

Lagou

(2015). Hate crimes hurt some more than others: Implications for the just sentencing of offenders. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 30, 1696-1718.

30.

Isaacs

(2001). Domestic violence and hate crimes: Acknowledging two levels of responsibility. Criminal Justice Ethics, 20, 31-43.

31.

Jauk

(2013). Gender violence revisited: Lessons from violent victimization of transgender identified individuals. Sexualities, 16(7), 80-825.

32.

Lannert

B. K.

(2014). Traumatogenic processes and pathways to mental health outcomes for sexual minorities exposed to bias crime information. Trauma, Violence & Abuse, 16(3), 1-8.

33.

Levin

McDevitt

(2008). Hate crimes. In Kurtz (Ed.), Encyclopedia of violence, peace, and conflict (pp. 89-102). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

34.

Mason-Bish

(2014). We need to talk about women: Examining the place of gender in hate crime policy. In Chakraborti

Garland

(Eds.), Responding to hate crime: The case for connecting policy and research (pp. 169-182). Bristol, UK: Policy Press.

35.

McDevitt

Balboni

Garcia

(2001). Consequences for victims: A comparison of bias and non-bias motivated assaults. American Behavioral Scientist, 45, 697-713.

36.

Mellgren

(2016). University students’ support to penalty enhancement. Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 17, 185-202.

37.

Miers

(1989). Positivust victimology: A critique. International Review of Victimology, 1(1), 3-22.

38.

Moran

L. J.

Sharpe

A. N.

(2004). Violence, identity and policing: The case of violence against transgender people. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 4, 395-417.

39.

Namaste

V. K.

(2000). Invisible lives: The erasure of transsexual and transgendered people. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

40.

National Crime Preventive Council. (2017). Hatbrott [Hate crime]. Stockholm, Sweden: Brottsförebyggande rådet.

41.

National Union of Students. (2011). No place for hate crimes and incidents in further and higher education: Disability. London, England: Author.

42.

National Union of Students. (2012). No place for hate crimes and incidents in further and higher education: Race and ethnicity. London, England: Author.

43.

Noelle

(2002). The ripple effect of the Matthew Shepard murder: Impact on the assumptive worlds of members of the targeted group. American Behavioral Scientist, 46, 27-50.

44.

Peri

Ben-Shakhar

Orr

S. P.

Shalev

A. Y.

(2000). Psychophysiologic assessment of aversive conditioning in posttraumatic stress disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 47, 512-519.

45.

Perry

(2001). In the name of hate: Understanding hate crimes. New York, NY: Routledge.

46.

Perry

Alvi

(2012). “We are all vulnerable”: The in terrorem effects of hate crimes. International Review of Victimology, 18, 57-71.

47.

Sherry

(2010). Disability hate crimes: Does anyone really hate disabled people? Farnham, UK: Ashgate.

48.

Smith

Lader

Hoare

Lau

(2012). Hate crime, cyber security and the experience of crime among children: Findings from the 2010/11 British crime survey. London, UK: Home Office.

49.

SOU. (1995) 60 (Official reports of the Swedish government). Kvinnofrid (Safety of women). Socialdepartementet.

50.

Statistics Sweden (SCB). (2013). One in five children has a foreign background. Retrieved from http://www.scb.se/sv_/Hitta-statistik/Artiklar/Vart-femte-barn-har-utlandsk-bakgrund/

51.

Statistics Sweden (SCB). (2014). Swedish and foreign background among students and doctoral students in higher education 2014/15. Retreived from http://www.scb.se/Statistik/UF/UF0211/2014L15/UF0211_2014L15_SM_UF19SM1601.pdf

52.

Swedish National Agency for Higher Education (Högskoleverket). (2008). Kvinnor och män i högskolan [Women and men in higher education] (Report 2008:20 R). Stockholm: Högskoleverket.

53.

Szymanski

D. M.

Balsam

K. F.

(2011). Insidious trauma: Examining the relationship between heterosexism and lesbians’ PTSD symptoms. Traumatology, 17(2), 4-13.

54.

Thoits

P. A.

(1991). On merging identity theory and stress research. Social Psychology Quarterly, 54, 101-112.

55.

Tiby

(1999). Hatbrott? Homosexuella kvinnors och mäns berättelser om utsatthet för brott [Hate crime? Homosexual women and mens’experiences of victimization] Academic dissertation. Kriminologiska institutionen, Stockholm, Sweden.

56.

Tiby

(2001). Victimization and fear among lesbians and gay men in Stockholm. International Review of Victimology, 8, 217-243.

57.

Wallengren

Mellgren

(2015). The role of visibility for a minority’s exposure to (hate)crime and worry about crime—A study of the traveller community. International Review of Victimology, 21, 303-319.

58.

Weisburd

Levin

(1994). On the basis of sex. Stanford Law & Policy Review, 5, 21-47.

59.

Williams

M. L.

Tregidga

(2013). All Wales hate crime research project. Cardiff University. Retrieved from http://orca.cf.ac.uk/60690/13/Time%20for%20Justice-All%20Wales%20Hate%20Crime%20Project.pdf

60.

Williams

M. L.

Tregidga

(2014). Hate crime victimization in Wales: Psychological and physical impacts across seven hate crime victim-types. British Journal of Criminology, 54, 946-967.