Jugendkonflikte oder hate crime? Täter-Opfer-Konstellationen bei fremdenfeindlicher Gewalt

Abstract

This report tries to describe socio-demographic characteristics (age, sex, social status, group context, delinquency etc.) of perpetrators and victims of rassist violence. Furthermore, it analyses typical constellations of perpetrators and victims and central aspects of their interactions by identifying opportunity structures, actions and reactions of perpetrator and victim and the behaviour of bystanders. The empirical data result from an analysis of police records on rassist violence in North Rhine Westphalia in the years 2000-2002 and from qualitative interviews with perpetrators and victims in 2003.

The results will be placed into the debate of two hypothesies: first the youth conflict thesis, second the hate crime thesis. Our report strengthens the results of former studies from the 90es concerning the socio-demographic structure of perpetrators of rassist violence. Concerning the socio-demographic structure of victims of rassist crime we can for the first time present results on a broader empirical basis. They show that the typical constellation of perpetrators and victims in the field of rassist violence is different from what we know from general youth violence, esp. group related violence. While in the field of general youth violence perpetrators and victims show many similarities concerning age, sex, social status etc., in the field of rassist violence victims are – generally spoken – older, more often female, at large migrants or persons from minorities, and don’t share the low social status of the perpetrators.