Analysis of Factors Related to Hate Crime and Terrorism

The objective of this project was to empirically assess the association between hate crime and terrorism in the United States and evaluate whether these behaviors share common determinants. Prior research has suggested that hate crime can be thought of as a “close cousin” to terrorism and that the two behaviors may be correlated and share common determinants. Yet theories of crime and political violence gave us reason to question the assumption of a hate crime-terrorism nexus. To examine the relationship between terrorism and hate crime we integrated several data sources at both the county and national levels covering a period of seventeen years (1992-2008).