A Look at Hate Crime Theories

¶ … hate crime theories and address how the theories can account for aspects pertaining to hate crimes.

Why Do People Do Hate Crime A majority of sociological hate crime accounts are aimed at one out of two points: "socially disintegrated people's anomic outburst" or, alternately, "the solidaristic response of a group or community that feels, or is, threatened." As sociologists deal with social structure, hate crime accounts typically indicate transformations in societal structure's features, including economic slumps, sudden social transformation, societal disorganization, or some form of social threats that, in general, result in violence, and, in particular, bring about bias-driven violence (Social Context Macro Level Theories ).

For understanding the meaning of societal structure changes, and how social disorganization, particularly, can trigger an environment wherein individuals attack one another, one needs to examine certain works in sociology that endeavor to elucidate the conditions for individuals' engagement in hate crime or bias-based violence. In actuarial as well as symbolic crimes, the selection of victims is often on the basis of a certain imagined or actual group membership and societal characteristic. A degree of discrimination founded on a societal attribute is observed in actuarial as well as symbolic crimes.

However, notably, the motives for actuarial and symbolic crimes differ. In case of symbolic crimes, the basis of victim selection is a wish to convey a message, stemming from prejudice (Conceptualizing Hate Crime ). By contrast, offenses of an actuarial nature entail the employment of societal categories as the grounds for selecting victims, to serve a non-symbolic purpose. In bias motivation terms, a basic difference between parallel crime and hate crime is the "motive standard," which sets hate crime apart as being associated with a certain bias or prejudicial motive.

In the symbolic crime context, a victim is chosen on account of what he/she symbolizes. This form of crime is perpetrated for significant reasons. On the other hand, in case of actuarial crimes, the basis for selection of victims is imagined or actual social attribute(s) for instrumental purposes. In the model of discriminatory selection, hate crime is solely defined based on the offender's discriminatory choice of victim, irrespective of the motive behind that choice.

The emphasis of racial animus theory is the reason behind discriminatory victim selection (Conceptualizing Hate Crime ). With regard to status provisions, each of hate crime's conceptualizations invokes decisions regarding those who count and those who don't. Color, race, nationality and religion make up the key status cluster, and are identified as axes for occurrence of hate-driven offenses. The next status cluster is gender, disability status, and sexual orientation; these elements are increasingly being identified as axes for occurrence of hate-driven crimes.

Theories of Hate Crime A majority of abstract hate crime accounts assume a compulsory psychological motive, as prominent hate crime definitions presume hostility of the offender towards the social group their victim belongs to. Individual psychological hate crime accounts concentrate on affective and cognitive processes by which perpetrators identify their victims, generate hostility, and become disposed to aggression and violence. Clearly, then, this approach explains hate crime as a form of prejudice (C219-Lesson 5 ).

Greg Herek, the author of "Psychological Heterosexism and Anti-Gay Violence: The Social Psychology of Bigotry and Bashing," raises the question of why certain heterosexuals have strong feelings of hostility towards homosexuals, while others accept them. Herek also gives an answer to this question, in his book, by providing a functional perspective to attitude formation and maintenance. To arrive at the reason underlying hate crime, one must look beyond the bases of possibly prejudicial orientations and motives and investigate the conditions or circumstances wherein such biases will be manifested as violence.

The emphasis, here, is placed on dynamics of small groups, which can contrive to drive an individual to commit a violent deed. Other approaches of social psychology deal with the interplay of psychological orientations with broader social forces (C219-Lesson 5 ). Some, for instance, have contended that media is capable of activating hate crime, through the creation, propagation, and legitimation of stereotypes, regarding potential target groups. Interactional hate crime theories revolve around the content, process, and structure of all forms of societal interaction.

In the context of perpetration of hate crime, in particular, interactional models concentrate on the way differences are developed, changed, sustained, or managed, in society, in day-to-day and infrequent interactions. One may want to look at Barbara Perry's In the Name of Hate: Understanding Hate Crimes for understanding hate crime. Cultural and structural theories are closely related. What Theory is most Convincing? The sociological theory appears to be most compelling. The key element of theories based on social psychology is suggesting that attitudes don't suffice.

While several people have attitudes that are consistent with the perpetration of hate crime, they don't commit it (C219-Lesson 5 ). By contrast, others engage in violent behaviors, using aggressive actions as avenues through which they may convey their beliefs and views. Donald Green and coworkers,.