University of Maryland research shows diversity in hate crime offenders’ backgrounds, motivations

New research from the University University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) found tremendous diversity in hate crime offenders’ backgrounds and motivations.

Researchers determined that these criminals are a diverse group, varying significantly in a brief that dove into offenders’ motivations, background, demographic characteristics, criminal histories, and target selections alike. While most were motivated by race, ethnicity, and nationality (71 percent), some are increasingly motivated by sexual orientation or gender identity, for example. Though this flies in the face of popular stereotypes, the report was based on a database on nearly 1,000 violent and nonviolent hate crime offenders in the U.S. — the Bias Incidents and Actors Study (BIAS).

“We are seeing that there is a lot of diversity in terms of who is committing hate crimes and what their motivations are,” Michael Jensen, START senior researcher and lead investigator of the BIAS project, said. “There is a wide range of prejudices, background characteristics, educations, and work histories. Their behaviors are diverse too. Not every offender commits an act of violence; not everyone is part of an organized group. While some offenders carefully plan their crimes to maximize their impact, others act without premeditation in response to prejudices that are pervasive in American communities.”

One major trend: hate crimes targeting victims viewed as Latinx, Muslim and Arab have grown massively in the last two decades, from less than 5 percent of crimes in the 1990s to nearly a quarter of all attacks combined. Attacks on African Americans have also reached more than 40 percent of violent and nonviolent crimes. Another trend: offenders tend to have previous criminal backgrounds and sport higher rates of low education, poor work performance, mental illness, and substance abuse than other segments of society.

Curiously, those attacking based on religion tended to be less violent than other types of offenders, preferring property crime against symbolic targets. Despite this, Jewish targets are the overwhelming targets of mass casualty attacks compared to others: while only targeted by 10.4 percent of offenders, efforts against them also included 38.1 percent of those who planned or committed mass attacks.