Criminology Colloquium Series: Steve Machin

Jihadi Terror Attacks and Local Hate Crime 
 
Empirical connections between local anti-Muslim hate crimes and jihadi terror attacks are studied. Event studies of ten terror attacks from rich administrative data in Greater Manchester reveal an immediate big spike up in Islamophobic hate crimes and incidents when an attack occurs. In subsequent days, hate crime is amplified by real-time media. It then attenuates but cumulates to higher levels than prior to the series of attacks. The overall conclusion is that, even when they reside in places far away from where jihadi terror attacks take place, local Muslim populations can face a media magnified likelihood of hate crime victimization. But it is only those incidents that are salient to local resident populations, because of where they happen or due to the media magnification, that impact local hate crime. Placebo study of other sizable incidents in the world that receive little local or national media attention have no such effect.