Premeditated, Organized and Impactful: Dating Violence as a Method of Committing Hate Crimes Against LGBTQ People in Russia

Abstract

Abstract Purpose The purpose of the research is to identify and analyze the cases of dating violence among the hate crimes against LGBTQ people in Russia. Dating violence (attacks on LGBTQ people with the use of dating services) became a common method of committing hate crimes in Russia in the late 2010s and was enabled by the discriminatory policies of the state. Method This research is part of a bigger project on anti-LGBTQ violence. The project generated a database of more than 1000 cases of such violence between 2010 and 2020 using court rulings as a primary source of data The current research is a continuation of this effort, it is looking into a specific category of hate crime – premeditated attacks in order to analyze the cases of dating violence. Results The research established that most of the cases in the category of premeditated attacks are cases of dating violence (239 out of 347). Most of those crimes (209) are cases of collective violence (committed by different anti-LGBTQ hate groups). There is evidence of the community impact in the incidents and in the agendas of the hate groups. Conclusions The research adds to the theoretical model of the progression of prejudice and argues that dating violence represents a more developed form of violence against LGBTQ people. This is due to the three distinguishing features (premeditation, collective form, and community impact) that are present in the cases.