“If It Isn’t White,It Isn’t Right”: A Qualitative Study Investigating People's Lay Theories and Stereotypes About Hate Crimes

Abstract

Hate crimes (e.g., anti-Asian and antisemitic) continue to be a problem in the United States. Federal laws protect specific groups (i.e., race, color, national origin, religion, gender/sex, gender identity, disability, and sexual orientation) from victimization of bias-motivated crimes. There is little research investigating how laypeople “know” whether a hate crime has occurred, as well as who they believe are hate crime offenders and victims. The current study explores laypeople's awareness and recognition of hate crimes, offenders, and victims that fit or do not fit their lay theories (e.g., stereotypes). More specifically, the study explores laypeople's (i.e., jurors’) lack of knowledge about federal hate crime legislation, offenders, and victims. The overarching research question is “What are people's lay beliefs about hate crimes, offenders, and victims?” A sample of jury-eligible participants was recruited through Prolific Academic. We conducted semi-structured interviews using quota sampling based on gender (men, women) and race (White, Asian, Black, Hispanic). We conducted a content analysis of the qualitative data. Results demonstrated that participants’ lay beliefs generally aligned with what federal law dictates; however, there were some non-protected groups that laypeople believed could still be victims of hate crimes. Additionally, results can inform researchers and policy makers about laypeople's beliefs about hate crimes, offenders, and victims, which can be applied broadly and to the context of juror decision-making. If laypeople's beliefs about hate crimes, offenders, and victims are inaccurate or do not align with the federal definition of hate crimes, they could subsequently make legally unsound and inaccurate decisions.

Keywords

hate/bias crimes race/ethnicity interracial crime intraracial crime victimization lay theories

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anderson

C. A.

Lindsay

J. J.

(1998). The development, perseverance, and change of naive theories. Social Cognition, 16(1), 8–30. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.1998.16.1.8

Boeckmann

Turpin-Petrosino

(2002). Understanding the harm of hate crime. Journal of Social Issues, 58(2), 207–225. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-4560.00257

Braun

Clarke

(2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

Brewer

W. F.

Nakamura

G. V.

(1984). The nature and functions of schemas. In Wyer

R. S.

Srull

T. K.

(Eds.), Handbook of social cognition (pp. 119–160). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Bureau of Justice Statistics . (n.d.). State-by-state hate crime laws . https://bjs.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh236/files/media/document/naacp_hate_crime_laws_by_state.pdf

Chakraborti

Garland

(2012). Reconceptualizing hate crime victimization through the lens of vulnerability and difference. Theoretical Criminology, 16(4), 499–514. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480612439432

Cheng

Ickes

Kenworthy

J. B.

(2013). The phenomenon of hate crimes in the United States. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 43(4), 761–794. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12004

Comstock

G. D.

(1991). Violence against lesbians and gay men. Columbia University Press.

Craig

K. M.

(2002). Examining hate-motivated aggression: A review of the social psychological literature on hate crimes as a distinct form of aggression. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 7(1), 85–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1359-1789(00)00039-2

10.

Craig

K. M.

Waldo

C. R.

(1996). So, what’s a hate crime anyway? Young adults’ perceptions of hate crimes, victims, and perpetrators. Law and Human Behavior, 20(2), 113–129. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01499350

11.

Cronin

S. W.

McDevitt

Farrell

Nolan

J. J.

III . (2007). Bias-crime reporting: Organizational responses to ambiguity, uncertainty, and infrequency in eight police departments. American Behavioral Scientist, 51(2), 213–231. https://doi.org/10.1177/https://doi.org/0002764207306054

12.

Curley

L. J.

Munro

Dror

I. E.

(2022). Cognitive and human factors in legal layperson decision making: Sources of bias in juror decision making. Medicine, Science, and Law, 62(3), 206–215. https://doi.org/10.1177/0025802422108065

13.

DeCamp

(2020). It’s still about race: Peremptory challenge use on Black prospective jurors. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 57(1), 3–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022427819873943

14.

Devine

P. G

. (1989). Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 56(1), 5–18. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.56.1.5

15.

Drakulich

Fay-Ramirez

Benier

(2022). The neighborhood context of perceived and reported anti-white hate crimes. Race and Justice, 12(1), 3–27. https://doi.org/10.1177/2153368719832944

16.

Dunbar

Molina

(2004). Opposition to the legitimacy of hate crime laws: The role of argument acceptance, knowledge, individual differences, and peer influence. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 4(1), 91–113. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-2415.2004.00036.x

17.

Ellingwood

Pica

Pozzulo

Schultheis

(2023). The influence of victim sexual orientation, gender, and gender identity on mock jurors’ judgements. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 38, 461–468. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-022-09533-7

18.

Federal Bureau of Investigation . (n.d.). Hate crimes . https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/civil-rights/hate-crimes

19.

Fiske

S. T.

Neuberg

S. E.

(1990). A continuum of impression formation from category-based to individuating processes: Influences of information and motivation on attention and interpretation. In Zanna

(Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 23, pp. 1–74). Academic Press.

20.

Fletcher

(1995). The scientific credibility of folk psychology. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

21.

Furnham

(1988). Lay theories: Everyday understandings of problems in the social sciences. Pergamon Press.

22.

Gamblin

B. W.

Kehn

Vanderzanden

Ruthig

J. C.

Jones

K. M.

Long

B. L.

(2021). A comparison of juror decision making in race-based and sexual orientation-based hate crime cases. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(7–8), 3231–3256. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260518774305

23.

Gerstenfeld

P. B.

(2003). Juror decision making in hate crime cases. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 14(2), 193–213. https://doi.org/10.1177/0887403403014002003

24.

Gerstenfeld

P. B.

(2013). Hate crimes: Causes, controls, and controversies (3rd ed.). Sage Publications.

25.

Ghazi-Tehrani

Kearns

E. M.

(2023). Biased coverage of bias crime: Examining differences in media coverage of hate crimes and terrorism. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 46(8), 1283–1303. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2020.1830573

26.

Giannetta

T. S.

Cunius

M. K.

Miller

M. K.

(2025). Investigating jurors’ lay theories about hate crimes, offenders, and victims: Do they match the law? In Miller

M. K.

Bornstein

B. H.

DeMatteo

D. S.

(Eds.), Advances in psychology and law (Vol. 7, pp. 181–217). Springer.

27.

Gladfelter

A. S.

Lantz

Ruback

R. B.

(2017). The complexity of hate crime and bias activity: Variation across contexts and types of bias. Justice Quarterly, 34(1), 55–83. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2015.1096952

28.

Grattet

Jenness

Curry

(1998). The homogenization and differentiation of hate crime law in the United States, 1978 to 1995: Innovation and diffusion in the criminalization of bigotry. American Sociological Review, 63(2), 286–307. https://doi.org/10.2307/2657328

29.

Green

D. P.

Strolovitch

D. Z.

Wong

J. S.

(1998). Defended neighborhoods, integration, and racially motivated crime. American Journal of Sociology, 104(2), 372–403. https://doi.org/10.1086/210042

30.

Guest

Bunce

Johnson

(2006). How many interviews are enough? An experiment with data saturation and variability. Field Methods, 18(1), 59–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822X05279903

31.

Hall

(2013). Hate crime. Routledge.

32.

Hall

(1973). The determinations of new photographs. Routledge.

33.

Haslam

Rothschild

Ernst

(2002). Are essentialist beliefs associated with prejudice? British Journal of Social Psychology, 41(1), 87–100. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466602165072

34.

Holsti

O. R.

(1969). Content analysis for the social sciences and humanities. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.

35.

Hong

Levy

S. R.

Chiu

(2001). The contribution of the lay theories approach to the study of groups. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5(2), 98–106. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327957PSPR0502_1

36.

Jenness

Broad

(1997). Hate crimes: New social movements and the politics of violence. Aldine de Gruyter.

37.

Jenness

Grattet

(2001). Making hate a crime: From social movement to law enforcement. Russell Sage Foundation.

38.

Kelley

H. H.

(1973). The processes of causal attribution. American Psychologist, 28(2), 107–128. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0034225

39.

King

R. D.

Kutateladze

B. L.

(2023). A higher bar: Institutional impediments to hate crime prosecution. Law & Society Review, 57(4), 489–507. https://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12685

40.

Lantz

Gladfelter

A. S.

Ruback

R. B.

(2019). Stereotypical hate crimes and criminal justice processing: A multi-dataset comparison of bias crime arrest patterns by offender and victim race. Justice Quarterly, 36(2), 193–224. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.56.1.5

41.

Levy

S. R.

Stroessner

S. J.

Dweck

C. S.

(1998). Stereotype formation and endorsement: The role of implicit theories. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(6), 1421–1436. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.6.1421

42.

Lyons

C. J.

(2007). Community (dis)organization and racially motivated crime. American Journal of Sociology, 113(3), 815–863. https://doi.org/10.1086/521846

43.

Lyons

C. J.

(2008). Individual perceptions and the social construction of hate crimes: A factorial survey. The Social Science Journal, 45(1), 107–131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soscij.2007.12.013

44.

Mahalingam

Rodriguez

(2003). Essentialism, power, and cultural psychology of gender. Journal of Cognition & Culture, 3(2), 157–174. https://doi.org/10.1163/156853703322148525

45.

Malcom

Z. T.

Wenger

M. R.

Lantz

(2023). Politics or prejudice? Separating the influence of political affiliation and prejudicial attitudes in determining support for hate crime law. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 29(2), 182–195. https://doi.org/10.1037/law0000350

46.

Marcus-Newhall

Blake

L. P.

Baumann

(2002). Perceptions of hate crime perpetrators and victims as influenced by race, political orientation, and peer group. American Behavioral Scientist, 46(1), 108–135. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764202046001008

47.

Mason

(2014). The symbolic purpose of hate crime law: Ideal victims and emotion. Theoretical Criminology, 18(1), 75–92. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480613499792

48.

McDevitt

Levin

Bennett

(2002). Hate crime offenders: An expanded typology. Journal of Social Issues, 58(2), 303–317. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-4560.00262

49.

Mirabito

L. A.

Lecci

(2021). The impact of anti-gay bias on verdicts and sentencing with gay defendants. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services, 33(1), 32–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10538720.2020.1830220

50.

Müller

Schwarz

(2021). Fanning the flames of hate: Social media and hate crime. Journal of the European Economic Association, 19(4), 2131–2167. httpsss://doi.org/http://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3082972 https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvaa045

51.

Papakyriakopoulos

Zuckerman

(2021). The media during the rise of Trump: Identity politics, immigration, “Mexican” demonization and hate-crime. Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, 15(1), 467–478. https://doi.org/10.1609/icwsm.v15i1.18076

52.

Perez

, & Matusitz. (2025). Comparative analysis between left and right leaning US newspaper in the coverage of the Kyle Rittenhouse case. Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajms_00166_1

53.

Reifman

Gusick

S. M.

Ellsworth

P. C.

(1992). Real jurors’ understanding of the law in real cases. Law and Human Behavior, 16(5), 539–554. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01044622

54.

Semmler

Brewer

(2002). Using a flow-chart to improve comprehension of jury instructions. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 9(2), 262–270. https://doi.org/10.1375/13218710260612136

55.

Sherman

S. J.

Corty

(1984). Cognitive heuristics. In Wyer

R. S.

Srull

T. K.

(Eds.), Handbook of social cognition (pp. 189–286). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

56.

The United States Department of Justice . (2023, January 27). Federal laws and statutes. https://www.justice.gov/hatecrimes/laws-and-policies

57.

Vanden Bosch

(2025). Communities collide: Hate crime myth acceptance in the campus context. Crime & Delinquency. https://doi.org/10.1177/00111287251330778

58.

Wamsley

Allyn

(2019, June 28). Neo-Nazi who killed Charlottesville protester is sentenced to life in prison. https://www.npr.org/2019/06/28/736915323/neo-nazi-who-killed-charlottesville-protester-is-sentenced-to-life-in-prison

59.

Warren-Gordon

Rhineberger

(2021). The “trump effect” on hate crime reporting: Media coverage before and after the 2016 presidential election. Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, 19(1), 25–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/15377938.2021.1895944