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The empirical links between online hate speech and hate crime: a systematic literature review

Laura Dellagiacoma, Institut für Demokratie und Zivilgesellschaft, University of Jena

While the interest of researchers and policy-makers in online hate speech is growing, its impact on the offline world is still to be assessed. In fact, most articles in the literature focused on either hate speech or hate crime. Among the few studies investigating both, contrasting results emerged. Namely, Williams and colleagues (2020) and Müller and Schwartz (2018; 2020) found a positive correlation between hate speech on social media platforms and hate crime rates. Yet, the time series analyses by Wielitzka and colleagues (2021) indicated that online hate speech follows hate crime, rather than the contrary. Thus, the present study consists of a systematic review of the scientific literature on the links between online hate speech and hate crime. The aim of this research is to collect empirical evidence on the potential links in order to understand under which socio-economic and political circumstances online hate speech is more likely to be associated with the hate crime rates. To ensure the validity of the results, the guidelines of the Campbell Collaboration were followed during the whole review process. From an initial database of 1479 articles, published in English between 2011 and 2021, two independent reviewers screened the articles based on the following inclusion criteria: articles should be empirical and have a definition and/or operationalization of both online hate speech and hate crime. After the screening, most articles were excluded and 103 were analyzed integrally. The systematic literature review provides an overview of the evidence so far produced and identifies the consolidated knowledge and gaps, looking at the different theoretical frameworks adopted and comparing the methods that were used. Whereas a meta-analysis was not possible, the present work contributed to grounding future research on hate speech and hate crime. Evidence-based policies are extremely urgent to prevent the escalation of intergroup and societal conflict.

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