Retaliation, Fear, or Rage: An Investigation of African American and White Reactions to Racist Hate Crimes

An experimental study was conducted in an effort to establish whether hate crimes produce greater harm than similarly egregious crimes. Hate crimes are considered to be worse primarily because they are believed to be more likely to provoke retaliatory crimes and inflict distinct emotional distress on victims and members of the victim's social group or category. In this study, analogous samples of African American and White males observed two videotaped assaults motivated by racial bias in one case, and by an ambiguous motive in the other. Reactions were obtained following observation and revealed that emotional responses and expressed desire for retaliation were associated with participants' race but did not differ for the two types of assault. The findings are discussed in terms of the utility of current hate crime legislation as well as the implications of the observed racial differences.