Running head: HATE CRIMES 1

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

Name

Institution
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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

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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).

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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

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.
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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.

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.
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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
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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.

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

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

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
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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

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
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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 Research Time Horizons Data Collection

Approach Strategy Methods

Positivism Deductive Experiment Cross-sectional Sampling

Realism Inductive Survey Longitudinal Secondary data

Interpretivism Case study Observations

Grounded theory Interviews

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
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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
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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

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
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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.

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4.5

3.5

2.5

1.5

0.5

0
Campaign Social media Regional demographics

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

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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

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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>
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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.

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Question I I I don’t I agree I agree

disagree disagree know strongly

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

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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,

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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

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Figure 2: Onion Research Diagram (Junid, 2014)