"So, what's a hate crime anyway?" Young adults' perceptions of hate crimes, victims, and perpetrators.

Abstract

Male and female young adults provided responses to open-ended questions about hate crimes. Results indicated considerable variability in their definitions, with perceptions of hate crimes differing with regard to demographic characteristics of both victims and perceivers. Victims may experience hate crimes differently because of who they are, why they are victimized, and with whom they share their experiences. In a separate study, males and females each evaluated a scenario of a hate crime perpetrated upon a male or female victim. Whether the crime was described as motivated by racial or religious bigotry, heterosexism, or was ambiguous was systematically varied. The demographic status of the participant appeared to determine how disruptive they regarded the crime scenario, and the likelihood that they would report personal knowledge of a victim of a similar type of assault. None of the participants was likely to report knowledge of a victim of a heterosexist assault. Policy implications of results from both studies are discussed.

The Impact of Racial Slurs and Racism on the Perceptions and Punishment of Violent Crime

“…That participants generally recommended longer sentences for crimes committed by White perpetrators against Black victims than for crimes committed by Black perpetrators against White victims is consistent with the results of Marcus-Newhall et al (2002) that showed this same pattern of results and with the results of Craig and Waldo (1996) that showed that individuals believed that hate crimes typically involve majority group perpetrators and minority group victims. This would tend to diminish the argument that penalty enhancement legislation for hate crimes could be misused to discriminate against minority group perpetrators who commit crimes against majority group victims compared to the reversed situation (Franklin, 2002).…”

Victim Blame in a Hate Crime Motivated by Sexual Orientation

“…Previous studies investigating perceptions of hate crime noted that potential jurors viewed the typical hate crime as involving violence and including a member of a minority group (Craig & Waldo, 1996). However, the current studies reveal that crime that involves violence and includes a member of a minority group may not necessarily be perceived as typical enough for it to be considered a hate crime.…”

“…Studies have examined some of these factors as they play a role in perceptions of bias-motivated crime based on racism (i.e., gender and race of the perpetrator and victim; Craig & Waldo, 1996;Marcus-Newhall et al, 2002). However no research to date has examined extra-legal factors in a case involving biasmotivated crime based on heterosexism.…”

“…In an effort to understand how people view hate crimes, Craig and Waldo (1996) asked young adults to describe a typical hate crime. Participants viewed a typical hate crime as involving violence or assault, being committed against a member of a minority group, and as being motivated by fear, anger, or ignorance.…”

The role of system-justification motivation, group status and system threat in directing support for hate crimes legislation

“…Not surprisingly, members of low-status groups, such as African-Americans, perceive more harm from hate crimes and are more supportive of hate crimes legislation than members of high-status groups (Craig & Waldo, 1996). In addition, people who report greater prejudice against groups targeted by a hate crime perceive less harm from such crimes and see little need for hate crimes legislation (Cowan, Heiple, Marquez, Khatchadourian, & McNevin, 2005).…”