Hate Crimes and Race-Based Trauma on Latinx Populations: A Critical Review of the Current Research

Hate Crime and Latinxs—The New Reality?

The impact of racism and discrimination against racial and ethnic minorities is a pervasive narrative throughout U.S. history. Increasingly, the culmination of race-based incidents and victimization has directed national dialogue to the perpetration of hate crimes against vulnerable and marginalized populations. In recent years, the upsurge in rates of hate crime perpetration has been particularly directed toward Latinx ¹ and Hispanic immigrants and communities (Martinez, 2014; U.S. Department of Justice, 2017b). From a Latinx man having acid thrown in his face and being told to “go back to his country” outside a Mexican restaurant (Ismay, 2019) to viral videos of Latinx families being harassed with racially loaded insults, being called animals, drug dealers, and rapists, one woman saying “even the president of the United States says you’re a rapist” (Selk, 2018), these incidents can be highly distressing and traumatic. As with many other forms of victimization, hate crime has been shown to produce adverse mental health outcomes like posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other trauma symptomology (Abu-Ras & Suarez, 2009; Holmes et al., 2016; Polanco-Roman et al., 2016). Despite the diverse bodies of literature in the areas of race, hate crime, and complex trauma, limited empirical work attempts to unify such processes together in the context of Latinx’s experiences. To meaningfully merge these concepts together, this review utilizes a race-based trauma framework in order to examine how the racial implications of hate crime victimization, and its respective harm, relate to victims and their experience and highlights the implications for treatment of such trauma among the Latinx community.

Latinx Populations—A Need for Attention

To date, few studies have examined the stress and related trauma associated with racially motivated instances of bias, and until very recently none on hate crime focusing on Latinx communities (Cuevas et al., 2019). The studies that do exist tend to look at stress related to perceived discrimination, immigration, acculturation, combat-related PTSD, and general victimization (Araújo & Borrell, 2006; Capielo Rosario et al., 2019; Ruef et al., 2000). Table 1 outlines the 14 articles that are included within this narrative review that discuss race-based issues and mental health outcomes among Latinx populations and represent important areas of scholarship that addresses particularly important intersecting arguments relevant for the framework presented here. ² Recently, scholars have accurately demonstrated that in the context of both racialized trauma and hate crime, Latinx populations are evidently missing or underrepresented. This is in spite of the fact that this population is one of the fastest growing demographics in the country, as measured in the U.S. census in 2016, with Latinxs accounting for 18% of the nation’s population and therefore becoming the second largest racial or ethnic group behind Whites (A. Flores et al., 2019). This rise in population underscores the problematic absence of Latinxs in current empirical literature, as this demographic represents a large proportion of the U.S. population yet their experiences are underreported and understudied.

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Table 1.

Key Findings From Reviewed Articles Incorporating Discrimination, Racism, and Hate Crime Among Latinos and Their Mental Health Outcomes.

1. Araújo & Borrell (2006)	Demonstrated that discrimination adversely impacted the mental health outcomes of Latinos in addition to other areas of life including educational attainment
2. Becerra et al. (2013)	Showed that both U.S.-born and immigrant Latinos are impacted by anti-immigration policies and rhetoric and are at higher risk of negative health outcomes
3. Capielo Rosario et al. (2019)	Reviewed the impact of perceived ethno-racial discrimination on acculturation, finding mixed results while evaluating sociocultural factors among Puerto Rican’s acculturation profiles
4. Chavez-Dueña et al. (2019)	Defining ethno-racial trauma among Latinos and applying the Healing Ethno and Racial Trauma framework to Latinx immigrants facing systematic oppression
5. Cheng & Mallinckrodt (2015)	A longitudinal study revealing that racial and ethnic discrimination is a risk factor for developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and maladaptive drinking behavior among Latino college students
6. Cuevas et al. (2019)	Both noncriminal bias events and hate crimes were shown to have negative mental health outcomes among Latinos yet are not likely to seek out formal services in response to such victimization
7. E. Flores et al. (2010)	Utilizes race-based traumatic stress framework to demonstrate that higher perception of discrimination was related to worsened PTSD symptoms, alcohol and drug use, and other adverse outcomes among Mexican American youth
8. Espino & Franz (2002)	Explored the role of skin color spectrum among Latinos and discrimination, finding that darker skin Latinos faced higher levels of discrimination in their occupational status as compared to lighter skinned Latinos
9. Nadal et al. (2014)	Looked at the impact of microaggressions experienced among Latinos across demographics, and differences in discrimination experiences were shaped by gender and nativity
10. Perreia & Ornelas (2013)	Examined migration-related trauma among Latino immigrant youth and their caregivers, and how the migration experience as well as discrimination can influence or exacerbate the risk of PTSD
11. Rivera et al. (2010)	Qualitative discussion of the role of microaggressions and discrimination on Latinos, reviewing the context of discrimination and the impacts of such experiences
12. Salas et al. (2013)	Focused on the impact of anti-immigrant legislation and sentiment on the mental health of Mexican immigrants, finding qualitative evidence of chronic feelings fear and stress
13. Sibrava et al. (2019)	Reviewed rates of PTSD among African American and Latinx adults as it related to racial and ethnic discrimination
14. Torres & Taknint (2015)	Showed a mediating relationship between traumatic stress, ethnic microaggressions, and depression, with moderating effects between ethnic identity and self-efficacy among a sample of Latino adults

Note. n = 14.

Additionally, Latinx’s rising rates of hate crime victimization have made it imperative to situate their experiences within these contexts. It should be noted that, given the diversity that exists among the Latinx population including skin color, ethnic heritage, immigration status, documentation status, and acculturation, these situations encompass a wide variation of experiences and perspectives that are not always universal. Latinx populations have long contended with categorization schemas that have a history of treating race and ethnicity synonymously, an example can be seen through the U.S. Census Bureau denoting Hispanics/Latinos as a singular category until recently with the addition of multiple race options (Chavez-Duenas et al., 2019). This occurs despite the diversity of Latinx populations, consisting of many racial and ethnic backgrounds, which has established an erroneous pattern of denoting Latinx populations as a homogenous minority group. Scholars have noted this categorization has in many ways contributed to the generalization, stereotype, and racism experienced by these individuals (Smedley, 2018). While this review discusses Latinx experiences in this general framework to capture all relevant empirical evidence, future research should take care to note racial and ethnic heritage, culture, and identity, when examining Latinx experiences within their samples.

Identifying the sources and outcomes of race-based trauma among Latinx groups has been a growing interest for social science scholars, largely due to the recent increase in anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy shifts directed at Latinx populations (Chavez-Duenas et al., 2019). The implications for adverse mental health outcomes, particularly relating to trauma, are especially high for Latinx populations. It has been previously noted that, as compared to other racial groups, Latinx individuals are more susceptible to high levels of acculturation-related trauma (Heilemann et al., 2005), substance abuse resulting from PTSD symptoms (Cheng & Mallinckrodt, 2015), and adverse behavior among Latinx adolescents as a result of discrimination (E. Flores et al., 2010). The majority of the research that has been done has centered on the experiences of immigrants, or how the immigrant experience has differed from U.S.-born Latinxs (Perreira & Ornelas, 2013). While it can be posited that the perception and experience of immigrants and hate crime might differ from U.S.-born Latinx adults, racially motivated hate crimes are centered on ethnic and racial identity and the perception of national origin, not based on actual citizenship or immigration status (Nadal et al., 2014).

Examination of the mental health scholarship on Latinx populations has consistently demonstrated links between culture- and identity-related stress to poorer mental and physical health as compared to other immigrant and racial groups (Cuevas et al., 2012; Marshall et al., 2009). With distinct linguistic and cultural factors among Latinx communities, established avenues for victim assistance might present specific barriers regarding the accessibility for Latinxs. These can include a lack of Spanish-speaking or Latinx staff, few locations in communities where Latinxs live or work, lack of cultural awareness regarding the needs of this community, or an inability to treat individuals on a spectrum of insurance coverage, without which many Latinxs cannot benefit from such services. Such barriers may also perpetuate the belief that Latinx populations will not be comfortable receiving formal help or treatment after victimization experiences, reducing overall reported incidents of victimization and crime (Sabina et al., 2012). Studies that review Latinx samples have reliably shown that factors such as discriminatory rhetoric, legislative action, and overall fear of crime have a profound impact on short- and long-term wellness outcomes (Zeiders et al., 2019), which can be compounded for individuals who are undocumented or reside in the U.S without legal status (Becerra et al., 2013). These factors, coupled with diminished avenues to service providers and treatment, leave Latinxs particularly vulnerable to adverse health outcomes resulting from victimization.

Given that there is an additional fear of deportation depending on immigration status (Passel & Cohn, 2015) and insufficient competency regarding cultural or bilingual staff at many health centers (Cabassa et al., 2006; Rizo & Macy, 2011), there is a lack of overall formal help-seeking or trust in law enforcement after victimization among Latinx communities (Sabina et al., 2012). It is therefore reasonable to posit that hate and bias crimes are highly underreported by Latinx individuals, including reporting to police as well as seeking other formal services such as medical attention or legal assistance (Bridges et al., 2018; Dunbar, 2006). While generally members of a stigmatized or targeted group are less likely to report victimization and more likely to have adverse mental health outcomes, this is particularly true for Latinx populations who have historically been treated as perpetual foreigners or second-class citizens as well as more likely to experience daily microaggressions in public and the workplace (Nadal et al., 2014; Rivera et al., 2010; Torres & Taknint, 2015). Little scholarly work has been dedicated to Latinx populations that are U.S. born or generations that have more fully assimilated into American society. Research looking at these groups has examined the relationship between enculturation, immigration, and crime (Alvarez-Riveraet al., 2014) but not on acculturation, American identity, and victimization. This is important to note because these events affect people who are very assimilated but are targeted based on appearance or ethnicity. It is an erroneous assumption that these events are experienced primarily by immigrants, as these events are happening to U.S.-born individuals who identify or are perceived to be Latinx regardless of immigration status (Cuevas et al., 2019). Particularly in the context of hate crime, when “othering” can be one of the significant outcomes of such an event, additional trauma can be placed on individuals who are American but are treated as though they are not (Chavez-Duenas et al., 2019).

Especially pertinent for Latinxs that are experiencing victimization is the evidence that this population reports higher levels of stigma and conceal their experiences after experiencing various forms of victimization (Mendoza et al., 2015) in addition to higher rates of avoidance related to seeking mental health services (Cha et al., 2019). At the individual level, victimization experiences are deeply personal yet can have significant social and cultural implications. In instances such as interpersonal violence, research has demonstrated that Latina women are less likely than their White counterparts to seek help after experiencing partner violence (Sabina et al., 2014; West et al., 2005) as well as suppressed reporting of rape or sexual assault (Rennison, 2007). This is compared to Latino men who have been reported to be at higher risk of violent victimization yet little research has been dedicated to understanding how Latino men address victimization (Lauritsen & White, 2001). Even less scholarship exists that looks specifically at transgender or nonbinary Latinx adults (James & Salcedo, 2017). While there is high reluctance to engage in formal help-seeking behavior among Latinxs after experiencing victimization, Ingram (2007) demonstrated that Latinx groups are far more likely to rely on familial support networks after experiencing interpersonal violence as compared to non-Latinx groups (Sabina et al., 2014). This resistance to formal assistance is then compounded when victimization centers on racial identity, as individuals who already feel stigmatized believe such incidents reflect poorly not just on themselves but on their community. The role of collective identity in these instances, or an individual’s evaluation of membership in a group that is perceived to share characteristics, can weigh heavily on the related social expectations of behavior following victimization (Ashmore et al., 2004; Lannert, 2015). For Latinxs, there may also be an increased hesitation to seek external help due to cultural and familial values that emphasize reliance on interpersonal and community support (Cuevas et al., 2014; Sanders-Phillips et al., 1995).

Being the victim of bias- or hate-motivated crime involves both personal trauma and the feeling of being targeted due to the membership of a larger racial group. Studies that review Latinx experiences regarding bias incidents have shown that racially motivated discrimination culminates in negative consequences in overall health, feelings of safety or vulnerability, and everyday functioning (Berry & Sabatier, 2010; Chavez-Duenas et al., 2019; Cuevas et al., 2019; Salas et al., 2013). Hate crime incidents represent the most severe and at times life-threatening form of racially motivated victimization, yet to date, there is very limited research that highlights the engagement with official or formal services by Latinx individuals after they have experienced a bias or hate crime (Cuevas et al., 2019). Within the race-based trauma frame, these victimizations meet the proposed criteria for events that are racially based, are emotionally painful, sudden, and result in adverse psychological symptomology that includes avoidance, arousal, and intrusion. Literature in the victimization domain has been limited to racial discrimination that would not be considered rising to the standard of a hate crime, which necessitates the expansion of empirical scrutiny to include Latinx populations that experience trauma from hate crime perpetration in addition to other noncriminal bias events.

Race-Based Trauma, Discrimination, and Hate Crime

Many scholars have sought to understand and deconstruct racism into specific components that incur psychological distress or trauma responses (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005). The literature on racism and race-based stress has shown that generally, people of color encounter these stressors in micro (individual) and macro (institutional and cultural) contexts (Elligan & Utsey, 1999) and that these stressors can impact psychological and physical health (Carter et al., 2005; Harrell, 2000). While both are derived from structural racism, microaggressions are the instances of bias that occur more daily (i.e., noncriminal bias events) and can include microassaults, microinsults, and microinvalidations related to race, such as being called a racial slur or demeaned on the bases of race or ethnicity (Osanloo et al., 2016). Macroaggressions occur at the structural level and inflict harm upon racial minorities through purposeful exclusion through both institutional actions and omissions in policy such as racialized immigration enforcement (Osanloo et al., 2016). Hate crimes represent an interesting middle ground, as they can occur at an individual level but are meant to be a message to a larger community and are perpetrated to continue the existing social, economic, and structural hierarchy. All such instances of race-based hostility can engender enduring psychological harm. Conspicuously missing from historical perspectives within stressful life event literature is the role of racial identity, racial stress, and the role of racism in the context of trauma. As such, the role of racial identity and trauma is posited to be invariably intertwined in experiences of discrimination and hate crime, yet have not been explored in this framework. Current literature on race, racism, and discrimination is examined to provide an important overview regarding the intersection of racial identity and victimization and the implications for mental health. These findings speak to the underlying mechanisms that exist in the context of hate crime, and how severe victimization relating to racial identity can impact Latinx’s health, and inform how they view their victimization experience.

There is a large body of theoretical and empirical research that has been dedicated to understanding the role of victimization of racial minorities and their mental health outcomes. Developing from this growing literature is a diverse number of definitions that seek to understand the role of race and trauma. Particularly, three main conceptualizations have emerged: minority stress, ethno-racial trauma, and race-based trauma. Minority stress is defined as the “unique stressful experiences faced by stigmatized minorities in addition to general life stressors, including discrimination, social exclusion inequality, lack of opportunity, and threatened or actual victimization” (Lannert, 2015). Conversely, ethno-racial trauma has been defined as “individual and/or collective psychological distress and fear of danger that results from experiencing or witnessing discrimination, threats of harm, violence, and intimidation directed at ethno-racial minority groups” (Chavez-Duenas et al., 2019). For the purposes of this review, race-based trauma encapsulates these ideas and is defined as a racially motivated interpersonal severe stressor that causes physical harm, threatens one’s life, or is an emotional injury that is motivated by hate, fear of a person, or group of people as a result of their race (Bryant-Davis, 2007).

Situating race-related stress in trauma scholarship has been formulated best by Carter (2007) utilizing Carlson’s (1997) model of traumatic stress. This model outlined three elements that establish the criteria of traumatic stress, which are subjective appraisal or perception that the event is negative, the experience or event is sudden in occurrence, and that the event is deemed uncontrollable by the individual who experienced it (Carlson, 1997). While specific instances of bias or hate crime might be deemed unpredictable or out of one’s control, the existence of racism and prevalence of racist practices make the possibility of an event a more consistent source of stress. When research seeks to understand the unique stress placed on minorities, the integration of racially motivated trauma into a traumatic stress model allows for the unique intersection of life stressors that are derived from racially charged incidents and the negative mental health outcomes they produce.

Traditionally, adverse stress reactions to violence or threats were evaluated based on the diagnostic criteria for PTSD, which can include violent victimization or combat. Traumatic events were formally recognized within the psychology literature stemming from the examination of combat-related trauma. Early scholarship recognized that there was a psychological disruption attributed to the emotional toll experienced in combat and war zones in soldiers returning back from the front lines, first documented during World War I as “shell-shock” (Monson et al., 2007). The earliest scholar to integrate organic and psychological explanations of trauma, Abram Kardiner, noted some of the first physical and cognitive traumatic reaction responses that were unique to severe traumatization in veterans including sensory triggers and altered emotional state (Monson et al., 2007, p. 39). Importantly for Latinx veterans, researchers found that Latinx adults who were coming back from war zones were experiencing higher levels of PTSD than their White counterparts (Lewis-Fernández et al., 2008), which they believed highlighted the need to have more Latinx-specific examination. This has since been expanded upon and reviewed in other combat and noncombat contexts, informing the basis for the major trauma diagnosis of PTSD (Hoge et al., 2014).

Starting with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders–Third Edition (;American Psychiatric Association, 1980)), PTSD has had an etiological requirement, meaning that an individual experienced, witnessed, or was exposed to severe event(s), which must be the cause of the traumatic reaction. PTSD is the only diagnostic criteria to include such an event to qualify (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Additionally, such events must rise to a severe threat of death, injury, or, in its most recent iteration, sexual violence (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). These events would not necessarily include situations such as having hate speech said to an individual, despite that situation eliciting a severe and potentially traumatic reaction. It is because of these reactions that researchers have noted that such trauma can and should be extended to any event or situation that is, to the individual, experienced as shocking or unpleasant enough to elicit such symptoms (Norris, 1992). Despite this, many of the current attempts to reframe racial trauma are still based on the PTSD diagnostic criteria (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005; Roberts et al., 2011). More recently, there has been renewed evidence that for people of color the trauma caused by race-based incidents can have negative implications for physical and mental health without necessarily rising to the level of threatened harm, death, or injury (Paradies et al., 2015; Pieterse et al., 2012). For Latinx populations particularly, PSTD has been shown to be related to racial and ethnic stressors, such as discrimination, which elevates their risk of adverse health outcomes (Sibrava et al., 2019).

An important factor for understanding and contextualizing traumatic events is the number, intensity, and duration of those incidents (Carter, 2007), which is particularly significant for hate crime victimization. While racial microaggressions and discrimination can cause stress, hate crimes are considered by many to be the most severe forms of racism or discrimination and can include more severe forms of aggression or violence (Craig, 2002). Broadening the definition of what can cause trauma to include those that are racially biased or hate motivated allows practitioners to more accurately account for the adverse outcomes experienced by victims of hate crime. For example, while repeated incidents of microaggressions or racial slurs are unlikely to meet the PTSD diagnostic criteria for a traumatic event, they still hold the potential to elicit a traumatic reaction and related PTSD symptomatology (Sibrava et al., 2019).The psychological and psychiatric community now fully recognizes PTSD as both reaction to victimization and a strong predictor for future revictimization incidents (Cougle et al., 2009). The race-based trauma framework moves this diagnostic framework further by specifically addressing the role of race and ethnicity as a contributing factor in both the trauma and victim response.

What has not been extensively reviewed in the literature is the direct impact of experiencing trauma such as violence or threats on the basis of racial or ethnic identity. In previous research, the majority of studies use race as a control variable to compare across groups but not as its own unique factor for trauma outcomes. Mental health and trauma exposure deriving from racist or discriminatory incidents is limited and has historically been based on scales such as the Everyday Discrimination Scale (Gonzales et al., 2016) and self-reported exposure to racial microaggressions or racist incidents among diverse samples of minority groups (Torres & Taknint, 2015).

Absent from this dialogue is the empirical link between trauma experienced in Latinx communities as a result of events that meet the definition of a bias or hate crime. This is despite an increase in scholarly work examining the impact of hate crimes and related trauma among other marginalized communities such as LGBTQIA+ (Frost et al., 2015; Lannert, 2015), African American populations (Piatkowska et al., 2019), and religious groups such as Jewish (Graham & Boyd, 2017) and Muslim populations (Samari et al., 2018). Hate crime, like other forms of severe violence or threats, has been linked to more severe physical and psychological acute outcomes including the need for victims to seek hospitalization or medical care (Tessler et al., 2018) and risk of suicidal behavior or ideation (Cramer et al., 2018; Duncan & Hatzenbuehler, 2014). These present unique stressors that can reinforce or worsen trauma symptomology from the incident that, unresolved, can perpetuate into chronic mental health issues.

General research on victimization that includes Latinx samples and mental health variables suggests that many of the effects of trauma are similar to other groups who have experienced victimization, such rates as revictimization, general worsening of mental health, and adverse behavioral coping such as substance abuse and suicidality (Basile et al., 2004; Boney-McCoy & Finkelhor, 1995; Briere & Elliott, 2003; Briere & Jordan, 2004; Macmillan, 2001; Norris & Kaniasty, 1994). Latinxs have also been shown to present some unique trauma profiles associated with violent victimization and posttraumatic stress reactions to violence (Cuevas et al., 2010; Marshall et al., 2009; Ortega & Rosenheck, 2000). As such, it is plausible that bias- or hate-motivated violence can create a uniquely harmful impact on Latinxs, yet this is unexplained or unaccounted for in the current literature.

Latinx-Specific Considerations in Victimization Research

Due to the scarcity of research on mental health outcomes among Latinxs related to hate crime, it is more important than ever to evaluate existing programs and models to determine how they may inform future methodological evaluation. Additionally, conducting research on minority victimization rests upon valid and accurate measures that account for racial and ethnic heterogeneity and capture the unique distinctions among particular populations. These include distinct grouping of individuals in racial, ethnic, language, and national classifications that most accurately represents themselves as Latinxs, through specific sampling strategies and inclusion protocols. As victimization research with Latinx individuals is highly dependent on cultural competency, language inclusion, and understanding of the community, scholarly endeavors will remain limited until such barriers are removed, and researchers are better able to capture Latinx experiences through accurate and validated measures (Pfeffer et al., 2018). This section reviews existing research and measures that are in use to evaluate Latinx populations.

Victimization

Traditional victimization surveys are limited in their ability to capture or provide information regarding bias- or hate-motivated events. Those who have attempted to, such as the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), have demonstrated that victims of bias-motivated events perceived ethnicity (51%) as a primary contributing factor relating to their experience as compared to other characteristics such as religion or sexual orientation, representing a rate which is steadily increasing over time (Wilson, 2014) and the 2015 NCVS hate crime rate against Latinx was 1.3 per 1,000 surveyed, or 0.13% (Masucci & Langton, 2017). What is not clear is how this trend directly impacts various Latinx populations, with particular emphasis regarding ethnicity and victimization between Latinx subgroups. This is because the NCVS and other large data sources do not allow for the inclusion of more specific identities such as specific ethnicity or national origin within Hispanic/Latinx as well as immigrant status (Cuevaset al., 2012; Miller & Lopez, 2015). These larger national surveys may also miss subgroups with the population who may be at greater risk of being victimized in this way, such as those that are undocumented, are more transient, or are located in particular communities that put them at greater risk that are not captured within a national sample (Pfeffer et al., 2018).

Other victimization types have been more thoroughly measured among Latinx samples including interpersonal violence (Cuevas et al., 2012, 2014) or domestic violence (Gonzalez et al., 2018) and childhood trauma (Hoskins et al., 2018; Yan et al., 2010). Specifically, the examination of victimization among these populations has established that once victimized, there is a significant risk of revictimization or polyvictimization across all forms of victimization types (Cuevas et al., 2010, 2014; Sabina et al., 2016). Violence in particular has been routinely studied among Latinx subgroups, demonstrating that Latinxs are at significant risk of revictimization once they have experienced violence (Miller & Lopez, 2015). Key to understanding many of the findings presented in the violence scholarship on Latinxs are cultural factors such as immigration status and acculturative stress. Acculturation, or changes that occur from intercultural adaptations (Schwartz et al., 2010), are of particular importance when researching immigrants and first- and second-generation citizens within Latinx communities.

The connection between culture of origin and the dominant culture of the United States can be a complex. Particular emphasis has been placed on measuring the differences between foreign-born and native Latinxs, which in general victimization studies have shown that Latinxs that have more fully acculturated are more likely to become victimized when compared to Latinxs that reside in ethnic enclaves, or Latinx-dominated and culturally oriented spaces (Gibson & Miller, 2010), which is a finding that has been routinely found among Latinx immigrants and communities (Stowell & Martinez, 2009). Research on interpersonal violence among Latina women that had reported more acculturation was shown to have increased odds of interpersonal victimization as compared to women who embraced more culture of origin orientations, who were shown to have decreased odds in interpersonal violence (Sabina et al., 2013). What is not established is if this protective buffer extends to Latinx immigrants when faced with bias victimization, nor what other cultural factors may put these communities at risk, or protect, from such incidents. Empirical inquiries about the role of culture, language, and community must be explored to understand how Latinxs may experience or perceive themselves at risk of bias or hate crimes (Table 2).

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Table 2.

Key Findings of the Narrative Review of Race-Based Trauma of Latinos.

• Racially motivated discrimination culminates in negative consequences in feelings of increased vulnerability and impact everyday functioning, particularly for immigrant populations • Exposure to racially motivated victimization is related to adverse mental health outcomes such as anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and poorer physical health in Latinos • The majority of the literature examining Latino samples sought to understand areas such as discrimination, racism, and microaggression, excluding more severe forms of victimization such as hate crimes • Only one study to date has examined hate crime victimization among U.S.-born and immigrant Latinos • Future studies should incorporate more diverse Latino samples, particularly regarding different racial and ethnic backgrounds as well as national origin • Future inquiry should incorporate racially motivated victimization that would rise to the level of a criminal incident, that is, hate crime, into survey methodology that centers on the Latino experience in addition to discriminatory incidents

Research, Policy, and Future Directions

Trauma that stems from a crime perpetrated against an individual or group due to the perceived or actual identity of the victim(s) can elicit complex mental health outcomes. The extent that individuals interpret such threats and incidents as part of their daily lives, or the lives of their loved ones, can increase stress responses and perpetuate adverse mental health outcomes. Untreated or unrecognized, these responses can culminate in long-term negative repercussions, particularly in communities where mental health services are not readily accessible. As demonstrated by the current landscape of victimization research, Latinxs exhibit unique mental health characteristics and profiles that, compared to other racial or ethnic groups, impact their psychological symptomology and long-term outcomes in unique ways (Ortega & Rosenheck, 2000). It is exponentially more important to give particular emphasis to this population regarding discrimination and trauma, given the continued growth of this community and the current state of political rhetoric and actions regarding Latinx immigrants (Martinez et al., 2015). The concerns for this population are becoming more prominent and regarded as likely to impact a larger proportion of Latinxs in the United States in direct or vicarious ways.

Significant barriers exist between these communities, care providers, and other official resources due to a lack of multilingual staff and inability for such institutions to gain trust in Latinx-dominated spaces. The lack of available reporting data can lead to a false perception that perpetration of these events is low or authorities are unaware of the full extent of the problem. These barriers also directly translate to researchers who wish to capture Latinx experiences, yet have not taken the necessary steps to properly approach or accurately represent the Latinx communities they are seeking to collect data from. Such steps include researchers gaining as much knowledge about the cultural and ethnic specificities of the population they are approaching, having diverse research staff that include members of the target population, creating multilanguage versions of data collection instruments, alleviating transportation concerns to study sites, and being respectful of the potential participant concerns when becoming involved with unfamiliar institutions (Pfeffer et al., 2018).

This absence of data is most notable in areas of disclosure, reporting, and help-seeking among Latinx victims of bias and hate crimes. While it is clear that hate crime generally is underreported (Harlow, 2005), particular factors associated with Latinxs and hate crime perpetuate further risk of stagnant underreporting and lack of communication between victims and service providers. Similar to other forms of violent victimization, perceptions of safety, believability, and trust in formal institutions are likely to decrease rates of disclosure of bias or hate crime. Having the ability to properly build trust and support for these victims is crucial to properly identify and serve Latinx victims (Table 3). Given the potential harm derived from bias- and hate-motivated crimes, it is alarming that there is no empirical research that has assessed what the effect and impact are on a particularly vulnerable population. Studies that seek to provide such insight must allow for the inclusion of heterogeneity in identity, sample underrepresented Latinxs such as undocumented immigrants, and create instruments that are culturally informed and appropriate.

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Table 3.

Implications for Practice.

• Practitioners should incorporate racially motivated victimizations in the overall evaluation of traumatic events experienced by Latinos • Increase the accessibility of mental health services within Latino communities and reduce barriers (e.g., lack of Spanish speaking staff, financial burdens) • Service providers should connect with Latino-centered groups to engage with hard to reach populations and build trust with the community

Given the dearth of information regarding bias- and hate-motivated crime and its related trauma and mental health outcomes among Latinxs, future scholars should strive to conduct longitudinal mixed-method studies to accurately capture these experiences in their entirety. Other methodologies, such as cross-sectional or purely qualitative studies, are more likely to be limited in their ability to establish the effects of bias- or hate-motivated events and trauma in a generalizable or conclusive manner. These approaches can also help overcome limitations of large-scale national surveys or official crime report data that may miss those most vulnerable to this form of victimization. Direct examination and analysis of victimization experiences, perceptions of vulnerability, and mental health can shed much-needed light on the lived experiences of Latinxs in the United States and how bias- or hate-motivated crimes impact the development of trauma. Given the relevance of this topic in the current sociopolitical climate, and the notable discussion that is pervasive within the public domain, it is clear that research in this area is increasingly necessary.

Policy measures taken at the federal, state, and local levels on hate crime against Latinxs must be informed by the population experiencing these events, and how their needs would best be met. It is critical for researchers, mental health providers, and policy makers to understand the impact of racism, and how it can manifest into bias- and hate-motivated crimes against Latinxs. The growing body of literature on discrimination must expand to include bias- and hate-motivated victimization to more accurately capture the various ways racial and ethnic identities are related to victimization trauma and adverse mental health outcomes. Most importantly, capturing this information may assist in the development of better methodology for assessment and responses for vulnerable populations, particularly Latinxs. Empirically investigating the impact of hate crime on trauma validates the lived experiences of Latinxs across the country, in a way that informs researchers, practitioners, and policy makers on the impact such events have on the individuals and communities that live through them.