ABSTRACT
Collective violence involving large crowds is comparatively rare in modern societies such as the United States. Small group violence, however, occurs with some frequency, including many so-called “hate crimes”— crimes said to be motivated by hatred of the victim’s race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation (see, e.g., Perry, 2001:7-11). In the early 1990s, for instance, more than two-thirds of hate crimes in the United States had two or more perpetrators (Levin & McDevitt, 1993:16).1 Moreover, most who collectively threaten or commit violent hate crime are not members of formally organized “hate-groups” like the Ku Klux Klan, but instead are often related to the victims as fellow neighbors, prisoners, members of college fraternities, gang members, coworkers, or students (see, e.g., Levin & McDevitt, 1993; Perry, 2001).2 Indeed, only about 10 to 15 percent of violent hate crimes in this period were committed by extremist groups (Levin & McDevitt, 1993; Perry, 2001:141-142).
