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Understanding the Nature and Form of Hate Crimes in the United States after Trump Election
Name
Institution
HATE CRIMES 2
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
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
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
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
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
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
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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
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.
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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.
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.
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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
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
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
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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.
Set 1
H0: The presidential campaigns have a significant positive impact on the rate of hate
crimes
H1: 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
Set 2
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
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H0: The social media use has a significant positive impact on the rate of hate crimes
H1: 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
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
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
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
HATE CRIMES 10
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
Table 1: The summary of the research design of the proposed study based on discussion
Ethnography Questionnaires
Action Research
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
HATE CRIMES 11
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
= 385.
Materials
The main tool that will be used in the study is the questionnaire. The questionnaire is
(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
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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
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
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
HATE CRIMES 13
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
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
4.5
3.5
2.5
1.5
0.5
0
Campaign Social media Regional demographics
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. (2017). Hate crime: an overview of significance and relevance to Irish sociology. Irish
Cheng, W., Ickes, W., &Kenworthy, J. (2014).The phenomenon of hate crimes in the United
Considine, C. (2017). The Racialization of Islam in the United States: Islamophobia, Hate
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.
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.
Mellgren, C., Andersson, M., & Ivert, A. (2017). For Whom Does Hate Crime Hurt More? A
Muller, K. &Schwarz, C. (2018). Fanning the flames of hate: social media and hate crime.
Pew Research Center. (2016). Racial, gender wage gaps persist in U.S. despite some progress.
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
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>
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APPENDICE
Appendix A: Questionnaire
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
A. Male
B. Female
3. Do you use social media? How many hours do you spent on social media per day?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
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
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
strongly
campaigns
media
hate crimes.
crimes
daily basis.
crimes.