Recent trends indicate that incidents of hate crime have become increasingly more violent since 2017, resulting in an overall increase in incidents of bias homicide specifically. Knowledge of bias crime among the general public largely derives from news media sources and, unfortunately, research that illustrates how the media covers and/or portrays bias crime incidents remains underdeveloped. Using theories of strategic news making, the current study examines the types of bias homicide incidents that receive media coverage by constructing a unique database of newspaper articles from prominent, national papers for 216 bias homicides that occurred between 2000 and 2019 drawn from the Bias Homicide Database (BHDB). Articles are paired with information on the victims, offenders, and the events themselves. Findings speak to the newsworthiness of certain types of lethal bias crime events versus others, which have important implications for public and political discourse regarding bias crime policy.
","abstract_html":"<p>Recent trends indicate that incidents of hate crime have become increasingly more violent since 2017, resulting in an overall increase in incidents of bias homicide specifically. Knowledge of bias crime among the general public largely derives from news media sources and, unfortunately, research that illustrates how the media covers and/or portrays bias crime incidents remains underdeveloped. Using theories of strategic news making, the current study examines the types of bias homicide incidents that receive media coverage by constructing a unique database of newspaper articles from prominent, national papers for 216 bias homicides that occurred between 2000 and 2019 drawn from the Bias Homicide Database (BHDB). Articles are paired with information on the victims, offenders, and the events themselves. Findings speak to the newsworthiness of certain types of lethal bias crime events versus others, which have important implications for public and political discourse regarding bias crime policy. </p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Tidwell, Caitlin"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts in Sociology (MA)","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Gruenewald, Jeffrey A.","Allison, Kayla"],"advisors":["Harris, Casey T."],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2021,"date_issued":"2021-05-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2021-05-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T00:58:14Z","subjects":["bias homicide","characteristics","Cultural Deviance Model","empirical distribution","news-making","news-media","newsworthy","Rarity Model","Criminology and Criminal Justice","Mass Communication","Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/3958","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Gruenewald, Jeffrey A.","Allison, Kayla"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Harris, Casey T."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Tidwell, Caitlin"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2021"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2024-02-06T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts in Sociology (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["bias homicide","characteristics","Cultural Deviance Model","empirical distribution","news-making","news-media","newsworthy","Rarity Model","Criminology and Criminal Justice","Mass Communication","Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/3958"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Recent trends indicate that incidents of hate crime have become increasingly more violent since 2017, resulting in an overall increase in incidents of bias homicide specifically. Knowledge of bias crime among the general public largely derives from news media sources and, unfortunately, research that illustrates how the media covers and/or portrays bias crime incidents remains underdeveloped. Using theories of strategic news making, the current study examines the types of bias homicide incidents that receive media coverage by constructing a unique database of newspaper articles from prominent, national papers for 216 bias homicides that occurred between 2000 and 2019 drawn from the Bias Homicide Database (BHDB). Articles are paired with information on the victims, offenders, and the events themselves. Findings speak to the newsworthiness of certain types of lethal bias crime events versus others, which have important implications for public and political discourse regarding bias crime policy.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Examining the Demographic and Situational Characteristics that Predict News-Media Coverage of Bias Homicides:"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Gruenewald, Jeffrey A.","Allison, Kayla"],"dc:contributor.advisor":["Harris, Casey T."],"dc:creator":["Tidwell, Caitlin"],"dc:date":["2021"],"dc:date.available":["2024-02-06T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Recent trends indicate that incidents of hate crime have become increasingly more violent since 2017, resulting in an overall increase in incidents of bias homicide specifically. Knowledge of bias crime among the general public largely derives from news media sources and, unfortunately, research that illustrates how the media covers and/or portrays bias crime incidents remains underdeveloped. Using theories of strategic news making, the current study examines the types of bias homicide incidents that receive media coverage by constructing a unique database of newspaper articles from prominent, national papers for 216 bias homicides that occurred between 2000 and 2019 drawn from the Bias Homicide Database (BHDB). Articles are paired with information on the victims, offenders, and the events themselves. Findings speak to the newsworthiness of certain types of lethal bias crime events versus others, which have important implications for public and political discourse regarding bias crime policy.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/3958"],"dc:subject":["bias homicide","characteristics","Cultural Deviance Model","empirical distribution","news-making","news-media","newsworthy","Rarity Model","Criminology and Criminal Justice","Mass Communication","Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance"],"dc:title":["Examining the Demographic and Situational Characteristics that Predict News-Media Coverage of Bias Homicides:"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts in Sociology (MA)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T00:58:14Z"}