The Anatomy of Racially Motivated Violence in New York City: A Case Study of Youth in Southern Brooklyn

There has been a dramatic increase in bias related crimes in the city of New York since 1985. The rise in hate violence has been fueled primarily by the actions of young people under the age of 21. This paper analyzes the relationship between socioeconomic factors, the ethnic and racial attitudes of youth, community sentiment and ideologies, and racial identities which incorporate negative attitudes toward other groups. The paper argues that the deterioration of economic prospects for youth has raised anxiety, fear, and competition among youth. Community sentiment and peer group participation channel these anxieties and fears against other ethnic and racial groups by encouraging an oppositional sense of group position and linking membership in the group to particular attitudes towards other groups. Peer groups provide the arena for the expression of negative attitudes towards other groups in the form of ethnic and racial violence, which the youth see as a defense of turf and neighborhood.