Understanding Fear of Hate Crime: The Roles of Vulnerability, Identity, and Social Cohesion

Understanding fear of crime requires attention to the interplay of identity, social context, and institutional trust. This study applies the vulnerability perspective to examine fear of hate crime—specifically crimes motivated by race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, and sexuality—as a distinct dimension of fear of crime during a period of heightened public awareness of identity-based violence. Using nationally collected data from the COVID-19 era, the study assesses how social and physical vulnerabilities and perceived neighborhood social cohesion shape fear of hate crime in comparison with fear of overall crime. Extending prior work that relies on identity-based proxies, this research incorporates measures of perceived social cohesion and direct experiences of hate-motivated victimization. Findings highlight both distinct and overlapping predictors of general and hate crime-specific fear, offering insight into how vulnerability and community context shape fear through partially divergent processes.