Understanding the Nature and Form of Hate Crimes in the United States after Trump Election

Understanding the Nature and Form of Hate Crimes in the United States after Trump Election

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Abstract

The proposed study purposes to investigate the nature and dynamics of hate crimes in the United States. This study will be conducted at the backdrop of the United States commitment towards diversity inclusion, which is a critical factor of social sustainable development. Understanding the dynamics and factors responsible for hate can inform the practice on how to realize the goal. The literature on the subject is documented, but it is fragmented and fails to adequately answer the question. Previous studies also exist, but can be generally seen to address aspects of the subject that cannot be directly generalized to the context of the United States. The hypothesis hypotheses are formulated and interested in inquiring whether there a significant relationship between hate crimes (dependent variable) and social media use frequency, the rates of exposure to the presidential campaign content and region demographics. The expected results will be qualitative.

Keywords: hate crimes, presidential campaign politics, social media use frequency, regional demographics, the United States

Introduction to Introduction

Diversity inclusion is one of the social goals that the United States is committed to achieving. It is vital for two main reasons. Firstly, it is a social justice approach that strives to accommodate people, shunning discrimination and marginalization (Mellgren, Andersson & Ivert, 2017). Secondly, diversity is regarded as a source of creativity and innovativeness since it brings forth a diverse mindset that offers solutions to different challenges in life. Unfortunately, diversity in the United States has been presented to be more of a problem than a blessing — it is one of the dimensions in which hate groups exist (Herek, 2017. In this case, a hate group is defined as a group of people that instigates hostility, hatred, and violence towards other members (Pew Research Center, 2016). Hate groups thrive along different cultural dimensions such as ethnicity, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and nationality, among others (Carr, 2017). In this regard, the topic of hate crimes becomes important to study because it is one of the ways to achieve diversity inclusion.

Interestingly, the issue of the nature and form of hate crimes in the United States is not clearly understood, while literature leaves various gaps. To a large extent, it is marred by debates. On the one hand, for instance, the discussion is characterized by the assertions that the United States is a post-racial and culturally inclusive nation with set out social and legal structures that shun hate crimes, which should be seen to be declining with time.  On the other hand, nevertheless, the position is potentially negated by the opponents who assert that there is still a lot to address the institutionalized problem. Some insights have even gone further to assert that the last presidential elections could have particularly aggravated the issue and increased the number of hate crimes in the United States (Stryk 2017).

On the overall, the issue invites various questions that are worth considering for research. Firstly, what is the nature and form of hate crimes in the United States? Are hate groups a growing or declining problem? What was the impact of the last presidential election on the hate groups? What are the factors affecting hate crimes? Although various researches have been undertaken on the subject, they have left unaddressed gaps — many of them have yielded conflicting findings that only justify the need for further research. Thus, the aim of the proposed study is to investigate the nature and dynamics of hate crimes in the United States. It is poised bridge the gap in the literature by updating the knowledge on the dynamics of hate crimes in the nation.

The proposed study is also important because it will seek to answers to these questions in the attempt to inform the policies and practice on how to resolve the problem, if it exists. It will be interested in the factors shaping the dynamics of hate crimes with the hopes of framing recommendation. 

Introduction

Theory

The most definitive theory for conceptualizing the dynamics of hate crimes is Whorf-Sappir model. Developed by Benjamin Whorf and Edward Sapir, this model presupposes that language carries certain thoughts and beliefs that influence or delimit the people who use it (Edwards, 2017). Essentially, the manner of how people conceive the world and behave depends on their languages. The ability of languages to play this deterministic role lies in its structures such as smiles, idioms, comparatives and proverbs that often carry certain word view meaning. In this sense, a world view is an integral and consistent sense of existence and offers a framework for coding, decoding and constructing knowledge. For instance, people can think about snow because language already presents them with subtle words that distinguish its various forms. In the lenses of the present subject of hate crimes, one can make two arguments based on the theory. In one way, language that the American society uses and which many people are increasingly exposed to contain structures that escalate hate crimes or accentuate it.  Alternatively, the continued mention of the word “hate crimes” in the mainstream language only causes people to think about it as rampant problem, in actual sense, it is not. A close look at the subject in relation to Whorf-Sapir model creates the allowance to hypothesize the interrelations between hate crimes and several variables such as presidential campaign, social media usage and region, which have been themed in literature and previous research studies. These variables are elaborated in the sections below.

Hate Crimes vs. Presidential Election Campaign

It is known that hate crimes have been increasing with time (Larsson & Åke, 2015).  It is argued that it peaked during the presidential elections. For instance, according to Stryk (2017), the number of hate groups in the United States has increased by 17 percent since 2014, and it is now around 900 organizations. Meanwhile, the hate groups targeting the Muslims have tripled since last year. This worrying trend has correlated with the 2016 presidential campaigns, implying that politics tend to have played a significant role encouraging it (Stryk 2017). Previous research studies (e.g. Considine, 2017; Carr, 2014), have shown pointed out that the presidential campaign carried themes that presented certain cultural groups, such as the Muslim and immigrants, as threats the United States security and economy. Therefore, it is inferred that such campaign rhetoric could have fueled some forms of hate crimes (Considine, 2017; Carr, 2014). However, such an inference tends to overlook the impact of the role of the opposing politicians in dismissing the relationships between the Muslims and immigrants and American problems. Such a scenario creates the allowance to question what side as particularly influential to the masses? Treating the population as comprising of rational people who can differentiate between the truths and the lies of demagogues, the knowledge of what degree the presidential campaigns might have fueled the hate crime is missing. Therefore, it becomes important to study the relationship between hate crimes and campaigns to inform practice and bridge the gap in literature.

Hate Crimes vs. Region

It is documented that hate crimes vary with region.  As noted by VOA (2017), the hate crimes have increased by as significant as 20 percent in the United States’ major cities within 2017. At the national level, the hate crimes have increased by 5 percent. The prevalence of hate crimes in 13 cities that have a population of at least 250, 000 people increased by 19 percent, rising from 690 to 827 incidents reported during the same period of 2016. The hate crimes in the United States most populous cities, including Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago increased by 22.4 percent compared to statistics recorded at the same period in 2016. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that different cities have registered varying statistics of hate crimes. The number of hate crimes in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Phoenix increased by 13 percent, 9 percent, 8.3 percent, and 46 percent, respectively (VOA 2017).

Another study by Cheng, Ickes & Kenworthy(2014) has confirmed the variations of hate crimes with region. Such a scenario invites question of the role of region and demographic dynamics on hate crimes. The answer to the question what factors determine hate crime distribution in the United States is missing. For example, are hate crimes affected by diversity group distribution? It is important to study this missing information to bridge the gap in knowledge and inform on the areas of attention that the practice should focus.

Hate Crimes vs. Social Media Exposure

It is acknowledged that hate crimes are rampant and perpetrated through means such as social media.  In an interview with President Trump by Stahl, the question of hate groups featured conspicuously as one of the critical issues, which the president-elect promised to address. The problem of hate crimes and hate speeches are acknowledged as common on the social media and other forms of popular media (Stahl, 2016). Thus, the element of social media use and exposure is also another interesting variable.

There have been attempts to study the relationship between social media and hate crimes, especially during presidential campaigns. One notable by Muller &Schwarz (2018) investigated the subject by basing on the case of Germany. The study reveals that right-wing anti-refugee sentiments expressed on Facebook predicted violent crimes against refugees, which were common in regions with high Facebook usage. Many other studies have acknowledged the social media as a powerful tool for mobilizing and influencing people (e.g.Barber, 2014), but have not directly addressed the issue based on the context of the United States. Therefore, what is missing is whether such findings can be particularly generalized to the hate crimes in United States, a somewhat different cultural context. If social media can mobilize people, then it can also be used to fight hate crimes. How is the case for the case of United States? It becomes important to study the study the missing information to develop culture country-specific recommendation.

Current study

Thus, the proposed study will be interested in the relationship between hate crimes (dependent variable) and political campaign, social media use and region (independent variables). It will be guided by Whorf-Sapir theory. It could be that political campaigns, social media and region determine the hate crime prevalence. Political campaigns may influence hate crimes because they contain speeches that are interpreted by diverse cultural groups differently. Social media could also have a similar impact because it a channel of communication. Finally, region can also be a factor because it defines distribution of cultural groups and their interactions. However, it is not clear whether their influence of hate crimes is positive or negative and to what degrees. The current study proposed to unravel the unknown.

Hypotheses & Predictions

            Based on the discussion, three sets of hypothesis can be developed:

Set 1

H₀: The presidential campaigns have a significant positive impact on the rate of hate crimes

H_1: The presidential campaigns have a significant negative impact on the rate of hate crimes

This set of hypothesis predicts that presidential campaign can either have a negative or positive impact on hate crimes. The outcome depends on whether politicians are serving as ambassadors of peace of hate.

Set 2

H₀: The region has a significant impact on hate crime rates

H₁: The region does not have significant impact on hate crime rates

This set of hypothesis predicts that, since hate crimes vary with region, a region could have a positive or negative influence. Indeed, regions are characterized by demographic factors such as cultural group distribution and social dynamics that determine when and how the groups interact.

Set 3

H₀: The social media use has a significant positive impact on the rate of hate crimes

H_1: The social media use has a significant negative impact on the rate of hate crimes.

This set of hypothesis predicts that social media can either have a negative or positive impact on hate crimes. The outcome depends on whether the social media are serving as advocates of peace of hate.

Method

The proposed study will be interested in examining the perception of people regarding hate crimes. To accomplish this, the participants will be randomly sampled from New York University population. The choice of the New York University is a convenient one yet it fulfills the research study requirements. In one way, the United States population is too large and can be conveniently studied by narrowing on a smaller sample of population in a setting. The New York University comprises a heterogeneous sample comprising different cultural groups that can be regarded as a representative of the views and position of country’s population. The representatives only need to be adults to satisfy the inclusion criterion and this for the convenience of research ethics that would have otherwise required that minors seek parental consent before participating. It would have been possible to limit the participation to include only the United States citizens, or even residents or students alone. Unfortunately, hate crimes cuts across all cultural groups, are perceived differently, and could be experienced by even the non-natives. Therefore, it is only convenient to strive to be as inclusive of every individual as possible to arrive at valid results.

Research Design

The proposed study will be based on the onion model, which is a comprehensive framework for research (Junid, 2014). The figure 1 in the Appendix B summarizes the model. It will use the survey. This design is convenient because it allow the researcher to understand the perceptions and the lived experiences of the participants that cannot be otherwise conveniently observed or experimented. The cross-sectional time horizon will be adopted because of its convenience to save resources and deliver timely findings. Finally, questionnaires will be used to collect data. The questionnaire technique will be used because it is convenient in inquiring the perceptions of the participants. As long as the respondents are literature, they can fill in their own, which is a prerogative to enjoy the liberty of providing detail information on the subject. The overall study will be grounded on the interpretivism philosophy and deductive approach, which are beneficial because they allows the researcher to approach the subject based on existent theories and analyze data that cannot be quantitatively ascertained. The table below summarizes the methodology of the proposed study.

Table 1: The summary of the research design of the proposed study based on discussion

Philosophy	Research Approach	Research Strategy	Time Horizons	Data Collection Methods
Positivism Realism Interpretivism	Deductive Inductive	Experiment Survey Case study Grounded theory Ethnography Action Research	Cross-sectional Longitudinal	Sampling Secondary data Observations Interviews Questionnaires

The dependent variable is the hate crime rates. In this regard, the rate of hate crime is described as the frequency by how the hate crimes are experienced. This rate will be measured based on the number of time one experiences the incident per month. The selected independent variables are exposure rates to presidential campaign, the social media use and region. The rate of exposure to the presidential campaign refers to the daily number of hours an individual is exposed to political news during the campaign. The social media use rate refers to the number of hours that an individual spends on the social media per day. The region defined in terms of demographic distribution defined by the number of diversity groups and population density of the participant neighborhood.  A sample of 385 participants will be recruited. The size is determined based on Cochran formula of a large sample. The formula is given by:

In this case, e describes the precision level, p is the estimated population proportion, while q is q the value is 1 – p.  Z value is given by the Z-table. The random sample (n₀) based on Cochran’s Formula is calculated as

n₀ = ((1.96)² (0.5) (0.5)) / (0.05)²

= 385.

Materials

The main tool that will be used in the study is the questionnaire. The questionnaire is semi-structured and it is designed to be as objective a possible to cover the themes of interest (see Appendix B). The first part of the questionnaire investigates the demographic aspects of the respondents. The notable elements that have been included include the age of the participants, gender, the neighborhoods that they live and the frequency with which they interact with the social media (see question 1- 5). The subsequent section of the questionnaire seeks to investigate the perception of the participants towards the theme of interest in the study and is framed based on the five-point Linkert scale (see table under question 6 in Appendix A). The questionnaire items are particularly interested in questioning how the participants perceive, imagine or feel the three variables, the rate of exposure to the presidential campaign content, the rate of social media use, and the region demographics, have a significant impact on the rates of hate crimes.

The additional material that will be required is the scientific calculator. This tool will be used to make simple computations. Besides, a computer installed with the MS Excel software will be required for data organization and analysis, and presentation using charts and tables that give visual impression that are easy to interpret.

Procedure

Before undertaking the study, consent will need to be sought from the relevant authority and the participants. The relevant authority is the school. The procedure will entail feeling the form that describes the purpose of the study, the purpose and nature of the study, which will then be signed by the school to grant authority. In the field, the consenting procedure will involve explaining to the recruited participants the nature and purpose of the study. The participants will be assured that the information they will give will only be used to fulfill academic requirements, and not for any other purposes. The participants will subsequently be given consent forms to sign as a show that they were not forced to participate in the study.

The Research Procedure

            The participants will be first asked whether they are adults. Upon confirming, they will be given questionnaires to fill in depending on what they deem appropriate. There will be no wrong or right answer. The participants will use a pen to fill in the questionnaire, expressing their views, perspectives, perceptions regarding the subject matter of hate crimes. Once the required number of questionnaires has been filled, the questionnaires will be given back to the researcher who will then use them for analysis. The questionnaire will contain the Linkert scale with a scale of 1 to 5, which will be used to measure the degree with how the participants agree or perceive a particular issue or statement. The five points are: “I disagree strongly”, “I disagree”, “I don’t know”, “I agree” and “I agree strongly”. Higher scores mean high approval. The participants will be treated equally and so there will be no manipulation of independent variable. The participants will be randomly assigned and involve single trial with a within subject design. The participants will not be compensated for the study. However, each participant will be thanked for their gratitude. The debriefing procedure will entail publishing the work for everyone, including the interested participants to see. The researcher will take the contacts of the participants who are interested in the findings and notify them on the day and site the finding report will be posted.

Proposed Analyses

Firstly, to test the hypothesis that the presidential campaigns have a significant positive impact on the rate of hate crimes, the analysis will be conducted with number of hours one was exposed to campaign news as the independent variable and the rates of experience of hate crimes as a dependent variable. Secondly, to test the hypothesis that the social media use has a significant positive impact on the rate of hate crimes, the analysis will be conducted with number of hours spent on social media per day as the independent variable and the rates of experience of hate crimes as a dependent variable. Finally, to test the hypothesis that region has a significant impact on the rate of hate crimes, the analysis will be conducted with participant population distribution as the independent variable and the rates of experience of hate crimes as a dependent variable. The example of proposed analyses can be organized in a bar graph to illustrate 2 x 2 findings as shown below.

Figure 1: bar graph figure of illustrating your 2 x 2 findings

References

Barber, P. (2014). How social media reduces mass political polarization. evidence from Germany, Spain, and the US. Job Market Paper, New York University.

Carr, J. (2014). ‘Experiences of anti-Muslim racism in Ireland’, Report, University of Limerick. Retrieved from  http://ul.ie/emotions/publications

Carr, J. (2017). Hate crime: an overview of significance and relevance to Irish sociology. Irish Journal of Sociology 2017, Vol. 25(1) 73–83

Cheng, W., Ickes, W., &Kenworthy, J. (2014).The phenomenon of hate crimes in the United States. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 43(4):761-794

Considine, C. (2017). The Racialization of Islam in the United States: Islamophobia, Hate Crimes, and “Flying while Brown”Religions, 8, 165.

Edwards, R. (2017).  The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Reflections of Modernity in the Borderlands of the United States. New Whitepaper: C57BL/6 Models

Herek, G. M. (2017). Documenting hate crimes in the United States: Some considerations on data sources. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 4(2), 143-151.

Junid, A (2014). Onion Research Diagram. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-research-Onion-reproduced-from-Saunders-et-al-2009_fig4_325644676

Larsson, G.& Åke, S. (2015). An Urgent Need to Consider How to Define Islamophobia. Bulletin for theStudy of Religion 44: 13–17.

Mellgren, C., Andersson, M., & Ivert, A. (2017). For Whom Does Hate Crime Hurt More? A Comparison of Consequences of Victimization Across Motives and Crime Types. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 2(3): 23- 32

Muller, K. &Schwarz, C. (2018). Fanning the flames of hate: social media and hate crime. Warwick Business School

Pew Research Center. (2016). Racial, gender wage gaps persist in U.S. despite some progress. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/01/racial-gender-wage-gaps-persist-in-u-s-despite-some-progress/

Stahl, L (2016). Interview: President-elect Trump speaks to a divided country. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-donald-trump-family-melania-ivanka-lesley-stahl/

Stryk, R. (2017). By the numbers: 7 charts that explain hate groups in the United States. CNN Politics. Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/14/politics/charts-explain-us-hate-groups/index.html

VOA (2017). Hate Crimes Rise in Major US Cities in 2017. Retrieved from https://www.voanews.com/a/hate-crimes-rising-in-us/4034719.html>

APPENDICE

Appendix A: Questionnaire

1.      What is your age?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

2.      What is your gender? (Tick where appropriate)

A.    Male

B.     Female

3.      Do you use social media? How many hours do you spent on social media per day?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

4.      What do you understand by the term “hate crime”?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

5.      Which neighborhood o you live. Is it a sparsely populated region?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

6.      How many hours per week were you exposed to presidential campaign? Include the number of hours you spent listening to people talk about elections, watching TV or reading about the issue.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

7.      Please respond to the following questions by ticking where appropriate.

Question	I disagree strongly	I disagree	I don’t know	I agree	I agree strongly
During the presidential campaign, I spent at least 5 hours following the campaign news, events and/ or engaging in the political discussions.
I have established that exposure to the presidential election subject had a significant impact on crime rates
During and after the presidential elections, I started experiencing crimes rates by increased rates.
The election campaigns and the related campaigns comprised discussions with themes that encouraged hate crimes
My friends and families reported experiencing increased rates of hate crimes during and after the election campaigns
Political campaigns carried positive messages that discouraged hate crimes
I spent at least five hours on social media per day
The more I spent my time on social media, the more I encounter the incidences of hate crimes
I experience the incidents of hate crimes at least once every time I use social media
My friends, colleagues and close family members have reported experiencing the incidents of hate crimes at least once whenever they use social media
Social media use encourages hate crimes more than it prevents them
The more people use social media, the more they are likely to become influenced to become the perpetrators of hate crimes.
Social media contains posts with positive messages that discourage hate crimes
I live in a sparsely populated area and interact with people with different cultural backgrounds (race, religion, gender/age/sexual orientation etc.) on daily basis.
Hate crimes are more likely to be experienced in sparsely populated neighborhoods and towns
Hate crimes are more likely to be experienced in regions with many diversity groups than in regions with few diversity groups.
My friends and family members have reported experiencing high rates of crimes rates because of living in neighborhoods than those that are sparsely populated as well as those with many diversity groups
The more people with different cultural background stay close together and interact often, the more they are likely to experience the incidents of hate crimes.

Appendix B: Onion Research Framework

Figure 2: Onion Research Diagram (Junid, 2014)