Assessing attitudes about hate: Further validation of the hate crime beliefs scale

Andre Kehn; Andrea R Kaniuka; Kevin Benson; Mariah L Sorby; Lauren Stornelli; Robert J Cramer

doi:10.1007/s12144-022-03626-6

Assessing attitudes about hate: Further validation of the hate crime beliefs scale

Curr Psychol. 2022 Aug 13:1-11. doi: 10.1007/s12144-022-03626-6. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Andre Kehn¹, Andrea R Kaniuka², Kevin Benson², Mariah L Sorby¹, Lauren Stornelli¹, Robert J Cramer²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of North Dakota, 501 N. Columbia Road, Grand Forks, ND 58202 USA.
² Department of Public Health Sciences, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC 28223 USA.

Abstract

The Hate Crime Beliefs Scale (HCBS) is an assessment of attitudes about hate crime laws, offenders, and victims. The original HCBS includes four subscales (negative beliefs, offender punishment, deterrence, and victim harm), while a shortened and modified version from the United Kingdom (UK; HCBS-UK) consists of three subscales (denial, sentencing, and compassion). We conducted a psychometric test of the HCBS in order to identify a best fitting structure with possible item reduction. A total of 463 participants completed the original HCBS, measures of social dominance orientation (SDO) and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), and demographic questions. Factor analyses revealed good fit of the data for a Hate Crime Beliefs Scale-Short Form (HCBS-SF), largely modeled after the HCBS-UK. The three subscales were: denial (i.e., downplaying hate crime severity and low support for hate crime laws), sentencing (i.e., support for more punitive offender punishment), and compassion (i.e., understanding and concern for victims). All subscales possessed acceptable internal consistency. The denial subscale was positively associated with RWA subscale and SDO scores. The sentencing and compassion subscales were significantly negatively correlated with SDO and RWA subscale scores. Republicans held the least supportive views of hate crime laws, concern for victims, and punishment of offenders. Data underscore the importance of evaluating hate crime beliefs in public opinion and other contexts. The HCBS-SF better captures hate crime related attitudes than the previously developed longer version of the HCBS.

Keywords: Hate crime attitudes; Political affiliation; Psychometric properties; Right-wing authoritarianism; Scale development; Social dominance orientation.

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