The Relationship Between Hate Groups and Far-Right Ideological Violence

• Author: Amy Adamczyk,Steven M. Chermak,Joshua D. Freilich,Jeff Gruenewald
• DOI: 10.1177/1043986214536659
• Published date: 01 August 2014
• Date: 01 August 2014
• Subject Matter: Articles

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

2014, Vol. 30(3) 310 –332

© 2014 SAGE Publications

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DOI: 10.1177/1043986214536659

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Article

The Relationship Between

Hate Groups and Far-Right

Ideological Violence

Amy Adamczyk1,2, Jeff Gruenewald2,3,

Steven M. Chermak2,4, and Joshua D. Freilich5,2

Abstract

This study examines whether the presence of hate groups increases the likelihood

of serious ideologically motivated violence committed by far-rightists. While hate

crime research has generally focused on a single state or made comparisons across

several states, we seek to examine this relationship within the context of U.S.

counties. A smaller unit of analysis allows for the simultaneous consideration of

several social processes operating at the community level, which might also influence

ideologically motivated offending by far-right extremists. We test the relationship

using data from the Extremist Crime Database (ECDB) for the dependent measure,

the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for the hate groups measure, and various

other sources for additional variables. We find that the existence of a hate group in

a county is significantly related to the occurrence of far-right ideologically motivated

violence.

Keywords

hate group, extremist crime, homicide, open-source data

1Department of Sociology and Doctoral Programs in Sociology and Criminal Justice, The Graduate

Center & John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, New York City, USA

2National Consortium for the Studies of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, University of Maryland,

College Park, USA

3Department of Sociology & Criminal Justice, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA

4School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

5Department of Criminal Justice and Doctoral Program in Criminal Justice, The Graduate Center & John

Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, New York City, USA

Corresponding Author:

Amy Adamczyk, Department of Sociology and Doctoral Programs in Sociology and Criminal Justice, The

Graduate Center & John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, USA.

Email: AAdamczyk@jjay.cuny.edu

536659CCJXXX10.1177/1043986214536659Journal of Contemporary CriminalAdamczyk et al.

research-article2014

Adamczyk et al. 311

There are several reasons to expect that communities home to domestic hate groups

should experience relatively more hate crime. For one, intuition would suggest that the

mere presence of extremist groups would increase opportunities for hate group mem-

bers to participate in hate-related activities, including the commission of crimes.

Another reason to suspect a positive relationship between hate groups and hate crime

is that hate group members commit crimes close to their homes. Examining federally

indicted domestic terrorists, Smith, Damphousse, and Roberts (2006) found that

offenders operating in the United States tended to commit crimes within a 30-mile

radius of their residences. Green and Rich (1998) also provided important insights into

the relationship between hate activity (e.g., demonstrations, rallies) and hate crime in

the form of cross burnings, finding hate activities to be strongly related to cross burn-

ings in one state. Public activities of domestic extremists not only coincided with hate

crime but also may have actually inspired them (Green & Rich, 1998, p. 279). If

extremist groups engage in public activities close to home, then, by extension,

increases in hate groups may parallel increases in the likelihood of hate crime

occurrences.

However, some evidence suggests that the relationship between hate group pres-

ence and discriminatory forms of violence may be spurious. While there have been

few systematic efforts to count the number of hate and other extremist groups in the

United States, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) annually produces a “hate

map” that includes a listing of all groups reported to them by their law enforcement,

policy, and journalism contacts (SPLC, 2013b). The SPLC estimates that membership

in hate groups has been on the rise since 2000, especially since President Barack

Obama took office in 2008 (SPLC, 2013a). Interestingly, the overall number of hate

crime occurrences in the United States has actually declined over the last decade

(Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2013). A possible explanation for this inverse relation-

ship is that membership in far-right groups provide adequate channels for political

expression through non-violent activities. In effect, it may be that hate crime and other

forms of extremist crime are less likely to be committed by members of hate groups as

opposed to extremists who remain unaffiliated with organized groups.

It is surprising that there has yet to be a definitive study on this question. In fact,

there is relatively little empirical research investigating this issue. Behind the dearth of

relevant literature are several methodological obstacles to valid data collection (Green

et al., 2001; King, 2013). One such obstacle is the lack of consensus over the meaning

of “hate crime.” Definitions of hate crime often vary across police jurisdictions (e.g.,

states, counties), and academics who devise their own definitions risk clouding an

already nebulous concept (see Perry, 2001). Another imposing obstacle is attaining

valid data on hate crime and hate groups. Official crime data sources, like the FBI’s

Hate Crime Statistics and National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS),

attempt to provide national-level data on bias crime but are currently not representa-

tive of hate crime offending in the United States. Others have utilized police records

directly from police agencies, but attaining representative data on a particular type of

rare homicide from agency records would require extensive resources. Still others

have utilized information published by advocacy groups (e.g., National Coalition for