hate crime

Definition of Hate Crime

(noun) A crime, often violent, motivated by prejudice.

Example of Hate Crime

• Physically attacking or threatening people because of their ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual identity.

Hate Crime Pronunciation

Pronunciation Usage Guide

Syllabification: hate crime

Audio Pronunciation

International Phonetic Alphabet

• American English – /heɪt kraɪm/
• British English – /heɪt kraɪm/

Usage Notes

• Plural: hate crimes
• In some jurisdictions, when a crime is considered a hate crime, the punishment is harsher.
• A type of crime.
• Also called:
  • bias crime
  • bias-motivated crime

Related Video

Additional Information

• Crime and Law Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
• Word origin of “hate” and “crime” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
• Barnes, Arnold, and Paul H. Ephross. 1994. “The Impact of Hate Violence on Victims: Emotional and Behavioral Responses to Attacks.” Social Work 39(3):247–51. doi:10.1093/sw/39.3.247.
• Gerstenfeld, Phyllis B. 2013. Hate Crimes: Causes, Controls, and Controversies. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Jacobs, James B., and Kimberly Potter. 1998. Hate Crimes: Criminal Law & Identity Politics. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Jenness, Valerie, and Ryken Grattet. 2001. Making Hate a Crime: From Social Movement to Law Enforcement. New York: Russell SAGE.
• Levin, Brian. 2002. “From Slavery to Hate Crime Laws: The Emergence of Race and Status-based Protection in American Criminal Law.” Journal of Social Issues 58(2):227–45. doi:10.1111/1540-4560.00258.
• Levin, Jack, and Jack McDevitt. 2002. Hate Crimes Revisited: America’s War Against Those Who are Different. Boulder, CO: Westview.
• Perry, Barbara. 2001. In the Name of Hate: Understanding Hate Crimes. London: Routledge.
• Prum, Michel, Bénédicte Deschamps, and Marie-Claude Barbier. 2012. Racial, Ethnic, and Homophobic Violence: Killing in the Name of Otherness. Hoboken, NJ: Taylor and Francis.
• Spalek, Basia. 2016. Crime Victims: Theory, Policy and Practice. 2nd ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Related Terms

• criminal justice system
• criminology
• illegal
• law
• nonviolent crime
• penology
• police
• power
• race
• sanction

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Cite the Definition of Hate Crime

ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “hate crime.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved September 17, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/hate-crime/).

APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)

hate crime. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/hate-crime/

Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “hate crime.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed September 17, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/hate-crime/.

MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)

“hate crime.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 17 Sep. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/hate-crime/>.