Hate Crime and Unemployment: is there a Connection?

Abstract: At the same time as the right-wing extremist wind blowing across Europe, the frequency of hate crimes in Europe is on the rise. This paper investigates the relationship between hate crime and unemployment in the municipalities of Sweden. To protect individuals from being identified the hate crime data is left censored at the threshold of 19 reported hate crimes per municipality and year. The data is therefore investigated by using a Tobit regression specification. The paper cannot confirm nor deny a relationship between unemployment and hate crime because of the mixed results. Contrary to unemployment, the immigrant share of non EU citizens seems to be highly positive significant with hate crime. The results of the paper suggests that hate crimes might be prevented by attacking racial and hostility values that fluctuates in the society and to improve the integration of minority groups in the society.