Actie is reactie. Reacties op geweldsdelicten, gemotiveerd door groeps- of persoonskenmerken van slachtoffers, en de invloed van Social Dominance Orientation

Abstract

This study is concerned with the perceived reaction of bystanders to (non-)hate crimes. An experimental research design was used to examine whether people perceived crimes towards minority-status individuals any different when these offenses were motivated by the perpetrator’s hatred towards the victim’s social group or category, than when this motivation was not related to the victim’s social status. Within this between-participants design the participants’ indicated level of punishment for the perpetrator was investigated. And furthermore, if Social Dominance Orientation was a moderator in the relation between the (non-)hate crime and the perceived reaction of bystanders. Reactions were obtained by a questionnaire and responses (N = 173) were made on a 7-point Likert scale. Results of this study demonstrate that the contrary to the hypothesis, responses and preferable degrees of punishment did not differ for the two types of crimes. Social dominance Orientation only has effect on the scale of negative reactions for both non-hate crime and hate crime, but the effect of SDO as a moderator was not significant. The lack of effect of both hate crime and non-hate crime indicated that participants did not seem to be more negative towards an act of discrimination than another unjust treatment.