ABSTRACT
Literature on hate crime is somewhat characterised by academic debate concerning the identification of the causal factors leading to hate-motivated behaviour (Jacobs and Potter, 1998; Sullivan, 1999; Hall, this volume). Extensive research into hate in general, for example, stereotyping and discrimination (Baron and Byrne, 1994; Brown, 1995), persuasion (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986; Chaiken, 1987), and prejudice (Allport, 1954), has already been carried out. The theories used to account for these elements in playing a role in negative attitudes and hate-motivated behaviour include classic psychological and social-psychological theories, such as social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner, 1986), the social identity model of deindividuation effects (Reicher et al., 1995), and deindividuation (Zimbardo, 1969; Diener, 1980). However, whilst these deliver some explanation into factors contributing towards why people may commit acts of hatred (Hall, 2005, 2013), current psychological research into underlying processes of hate crimes is still somewhat limited. Therefore, remarkably little is known about the underlying social and social psychological processes that give rise to hate-motivated offending behaviour (Bowling, 1999; Hall, 2010) and, specifically, the causal risk factors that potentially contribute towards both negative prejudiced attitudes and subsequent actions (Sibbitt, 1997; Green et al., 2003). In fact, hate crime has only recently been adopted as a psychological topic in social psychology textbooks (see Hogg and Vaughan, 2010).
