Local deprivation predicts right-wing hate crime in England

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 18; no. 9; p. e0289423
• Main Authors: Belgioioso, Margherita, Dworschak, Christoph, Gleditsch, Kristian Skrede
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Francisco Public Library of Science 06.09.2023; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Aggression; Alienation; Analysis; Causes of; Community; Conservatism; Crime; Criminal statistics; Deprivation; Earth Sciences; Extremism; Hate crimes; Ideology; Legitimacy; Medicine and Health Sciences; Neighborhoods; People and Places; Physical Sciences; Political activism; Political leadership; Political violence; Population; Prevention; Radicalism; Research and Analysis Methods; Social Sciences; Terrorism; Violence; United Kingdom; United Kingdom > UK; England
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289423

We argue that community deprivation can increase the risk of right-wing radicalization and violent attacks and that measures of local deprivation can help improve forecasting local hate crime rates. A large body of research stresses how experiences of deprivation can erode the perceived legitimacy of political leaders and institutions, increase alienation, and encourage right-wing radicalization and hate crime. Existing analyses have found limited support for a close relationship between deprivation and radicalization among individuals. We provide an alternative approach using highly disaggregated data for England and show that information on local deprivation can improve predictions of the location of right-wing hate crime attacks. Beyond the ability to predict where right-wing hate crime is likely, our results suggest that efforts to decrease deprivation can have important consequences for political violence, and that targeting structural facilitators to prevent far-right violence ex ante can be an alternative or complement to ex post measures.