Examining hate-motivated aggression - A review of the social psychological literature on hate crimes as a distinct form of aggression

Although intergroup violence has occurred in the United States from as early as the first European contact with North America, it has only been within the last two decades that the label hate crime has been used to describe particular acts of intergroup aggression and violence. A hate crime is an illegal act involving intentional selection of a victim based on a perpetrator's bias or prejudice against the actual or perceived status of the victim. Little scholarly attention has focused on hate crime, and attempts to explain its causes and to describe its victims and perpetrators are rare. This article reviews the literature on hate crimes in social psychology and other related fields. The goal of this article was to identify common factors across the different types of hate crimes in order to clarify existing claims about the nature of hate-motivated crimes, their prevalence, and causes. Existing theory and empirical Findings are examined throughout the discussion. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.