Sociological theories of hate crime and victim selection

¶ … 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.

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, in their article "The Distinctive Political World View of Hate Crime Perpetrators and White Supremacists," highlight the role played by social psychological hate crime factors, through a comparison of the opinions of perpetrators of hate crime, general public, and white supremacists.

Questions tapping general orientations toward state intervention in social services, healthcare facilities, and other such areas, indicate marginal differences among four societal groups. But when the topic of migrant admittance into the nation or prohibiting matrimony between whites and blacks is broached, white supremacists' and perpetrators' opinions sharply differ from those of the general public. Similar contrasts can be seen on various issues pertaining to out-group exclusion, like whether companies are authorized to terminate the employment of gay workers, or whether gays or blacks should be allowed to reside in localities wherein their presence is unwelcome (C219-Lesson 5 ). Items directly tapping into the ideology of white supremacists indicate differences among the special and general public, and among white supremacists and perpetrators. To understand this, one need only view the questions regarding whether whites should organize themselves, and regarding confederate flag prohibition. Sociological theory seems to delve deeper into what the driving force behind hate crime is, and thus, is important.