Racial diversity and hate crime incidents

What makes the United States a unique country is the diversity of its people. However, when crimes are committed because of our perceived differences or bias against racial group(s) and/or ethnicity, these crimes can damage the social fabric of our society and fragment communities. In an attempt to determine the extent and nature of hate crime, this study examines demographic compositions and pertinent socio-economic factors that could help explain variations of hate crime incidents across states. The regression estimation results suggest dropout rate and the number of Asians, Pacific islanders as a proportion of state's population to be significant predictors of hate crime incidents across state. The role of the general economic condition in explaining variations in hate crime incidents is found to be statistically inconclusive. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.