Topic Since its creation at the hands of our Founding Fathers, America has prided itself on the protection of free speech. However, with this protection has come the toleration of hate speech which, overtime, has evolved into hate groups. As described by novelist Salman Rushdie, “The First Amendment defends all forms of speech including hate speech, which is why groups like Ku Klux Klan are allowed to utter their poisonous remarks.” Hate groups, as defined by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), is “an organization that – based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities – has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.”
However, this work can also be used in correlation with PS 391-002: Special Topics in Political Science: International Human Rights due to the fact that individuals have a human right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in competition with an individual’s right to free speech and freedom of assembly.
Research Question In observing the information above, my research question would focus on whether or not an increase (decrease) in hate groups results in an increase (decrease) in hate crimes. The reasoning behind this is that hate groups results in an echo chamber of hateful ideologies which might result in a normalization of more extremist views. This, in the end, may result in the justification of hate crimes and lead to an increase. As a result, our hypothesis would be as follows: Hypothesis: As the yearly amount of hate groups in America increases (decreases), the amount of hate crimes reported per year also increases (decreases).
Research
hate groups and hate crimes) and describing why a correlation between these phenomenon is important. A short literature review will be discussed to further explain the phenomenon and its important, as well as explaining previous ideas regarding hate crimes and hate groups in general. Afterwards, the data will be shown and explained, describing whether or not a correlation exists (as hypothesized) and, if so, how strong the correlation is. Since the research is already conducted, we are aware that the correlation is not strong enough to say that the two phenomena are linked but, rather, that individual hate groups and specific forms of hate crimes share a stronger correlation. The presentation will then further on this notion of “specialized hatred” and bring up potential policy ideas to combat this problem as well as what direction future research should