ABSTRACT
Hate crimes emerged to secure a place in the “social problems market place”. Social movement scholars and “new institutionalists” alike have failed to bring together the social movement and “new institutionalism” literatures. As with most social conditions that achieve the status of social problem, victims have been rendered apparent in the social problem of hate crimes. A social constructionist approach to victimization devotes analytic attention to the social processes by which persons become recognizable and understood as victims. This approach to the study of victimization is based on the notion that the meaning of objects does not inhere in those objects, but is conferred upon them as they are interpreted, organized, and represented through social interaction. Consistent with the constructionist formulation of social problems as projections of collective sentiments rather than simple mirrors of objective conditions. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
