Hate Crime as Social Control: Integrating Black's Theories of Conflict Management and Social Time

Despite three decades of hate crime research encompassing both group threat theories and micro‐level perspectives, the social milieu explaining bias‐motivated crime remains inconclusive. Empirical inconsistencies regarding the social dynamics and structural features conducive to hate crime suggest the need for alternative frameworks for understanding bias‐motivated behavior. We integrate Black's theory of social control with his theory of social time to offer one such alternative that positions hate crime as a distinct form of conflict management with its own unique “conflict structure.” Focusing on the case as the unit of analysis, we specify the conditions that define the conflict structure of hate crime cases, including the absence of alternative social control, social distance and the lack of cross‐cutting social ties, and economic, relational, and cultural marginality. Further, we consider how changes in the vertical, relational, and cultural dimensions of conflict structures may impact the prevalence of hate crime. Our approach offers testable propositions, emphasizes the importance of case‐level and longitudinal data, and suggests long‐term strategies for bias crime prevention.