Evaluating the Severity of Hate-motivated Violence: Intersectional Differences among LGBT Hate Crime Victims

TLDR

Previous research on LGBT hate crime victims has mainly examined the psychological impacts of violence. The study investigates how LGBT individuals assess the severity of hate‑motivated violence, comparing perceptions across socioeconomic and racial/ethnic groups. The authors conducted semi‑structured, in‑depth interviews with 44 anti‑LGBT violence survivors in New York City. Middle‑class white respondents were more likely to rate their violent experiences as severe than low‑income people of colour, despite the latter experiencing more physical violence, indicating that social position shapes severity evaluations.

Abstract

This article employs an intersectional approach to examine the ways in which lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people evaluate the severity of hate-motivated violence. Previous studies of LGBT hate crime victims have typically focused on the psychological effects of violence. In contrast, this article explores the sociological components of hate crime by comparing the perceptions of poor and working-class LGBT people of colour with the perceptions of white, middle-class LGBT people. Data were collected from semi-structured, in-depth interviews, conducted in New York City, with 44 people who experienced anti-LGBT violence. Results indicate that middle-class white respondents were more likely than low-income people of colour to perceive their violent experiences as severe, even though the latter experienced more physical violence than the former. This finding suggests that the social position of LGBT people plays an instrumental role in structuring how they evaluate the severity of hate-motivated violence.