The Orlando shooting: exploring the link between hate crimes and terrorism
Many hate crimes in the United States are not terrorist acts because they lack a violent or extremist component. Tagging property with graffiti would be an example. Hate crimes are often property offenses. They are typically committed by nonpolitical youths who do not seek to further any ideology. Rather, they commit the hate offense for the thrill of it.
In turn, terrorist acts in the United States are often not hate crimes. Indeed, many violent, ideologically motivated attacks in the United States don’t target a specific race or religion. Instead, they are aimed at the U.S. government, random civilians, American society at large, or entities like research laboratories or food production plants that some believe harm animals or the environment. The 9/11 attacks are an example.
Overlap is possible
A few attacks are both terrorist acts and hate crimes. The mass shooting by Omar Mateen that occurred at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando is one such example.
These attacks are violent and are committed by far rightists, al-Qaeda or Islamic State (IS) supporters to further their extremist ideology. That makes them terrorism.
These attacks also purposefully target racial, sexual orientation or religious minorities, and so are hate crimes too.
Of the 196 far-right extremist homicides we identified, 50 percent targeted racial or ethnic minorities, 9 percent were hate crimes against the LGBT community, and around 10 percent targeted religious minorities.
Of the forty-four al-Qaeda and IS homicides we identified, 7 percent targeted the Jewish community while another 4 percent targeted the LGBT community.
A notable number of these fatal attacks, by both the far-right and al-Qaeda extremists, would be classified as both terrorist acts and hate crimes by many definitions.
On the other hand, more than 85 percent of the al-Qaeda and IS deadly attacks, and over 30 percent of the far-right fatal attacks, would be classified as terrorism only.
The number of ideologically motivated hate crimes and terrorism homicides have trended differently over time.
Through the 1990s, the number of hate crimes remained relatively stable, then declined through 2004.
In contrast, the number of terrorism homicides rose gradually and consistently between 1990 and 2004, then declined until 2009. There has been a slight increase since then.
Security through understanding
This week’s murders serve as a reminder of the significant threat posed by domestic extremists in the United States.
Over the last twenty years, an impressive amount of research has been published on the motivations of perpetrators, and characteristics of events and targets. The Orlando tragedy, and the data presented here, demonstrate the importance of exploring difficult questions.
For example, are terrorists who commit acts of hate and terrorists who target the government radicalized the same way?
Are perpetrators motivated by far-right extremist views similar to those motivated by jihadist extremism?
What factors helped push these perpetrators to violence, and what steps can be taken to stop it from occurring again?
Answering these questions may help law enforcement identify, investigate, prosecute, and ideally thwart those who seek to turn to violence to achieve their goals.
Joshua D. Freilich is Professor of Criminal Justice, City University of New York; Jeff Gruenewald is Assistant Professor of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis; Steven Chermak is Professor of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University; William Parkin is Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, Seattle University. The views and conclusions contained in this articleare those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, or START. This article is published courtesy of The Conversation (under Creative Commons-Attribution/No derivative).
