Locked Down, Lashing Out: Situational Triggers and Hateful Behavior Towards Minority Ethnic Immigrants

Dipoppa Dipoppa, Guy Grossman and Stephanie Zonszein
Additional contact information
Dipoppa Dipoppa: Stanford University
Guy Grossman: University of Pennsylvania
Stephanie Zonszein: University of Pennsylvania

Empirical Studies of Conflict Project (ESOC) Working Papers from Empirical Studies of Conflict Project

Abstract: Covid-19 caused a significant health and economic crisis, a condition identified as conducive to stigmatization and hateful behavior against minority groups. It is however unclear whether the threat of infection triggers violence in addition to stigmatization, and whether a violent reaction can happen at the onset of an unexpected economic shock before social hierarchies can be disrupted. Using a novel database of hate crimes across Italy, we show that (i) hate crimes against Asians increased substantially at the pandemic onset, and that (ii) the increase was concentrated in cities with higher expected unemployment, but not higher mortality. We then examine individual, local and national mobilization as mechanisms. We find that (iii) local far-right institutions motivate hate crimes, while we find no support for the role of individual prejudice and national discourse. Our study identifies new conditions triggering hateful behavior, advancing our understanding of factors hindering migrant integration.

Keywords: Italy; Hate Crimes; Intergroup violence; Prejudice; Economic crisis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D74 D91 G01 P46 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-mig
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://esoc.princeton.edu/WP23

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pri:esocpu:23

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Empirical Studies of Conflict Project (ESOC) Working Papers from Empirical Studies of Conflict Project Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Bobray Bordelon ().