This systematic review examined the current state of research on the involvement of young people in hate speech, an area the authors affirm that remains relatively underexplored.
Two main issues make its focus: the prevalence of hate speech among children and adolescents, including the definitions used to assess prevalence, and the theoretical and empirical overlap between hate speech and related concepts.
Guided by the Cochrane approach, the review includes studies reporting real-life experiences of hate speech and providing empirical prevalence data for samples aged 5 to 21 years. An electronic search across ERIC, SocInfo, PsycInfo, and Psyndex identified 1,850 publications, of which 18 publications based on 10 studies met the inclusion criteria. Most studies relied on quantitative methods and focused on adolescent samples, with no studies examining younger children.
Results show that exposure to hate speech was more frequent than victimization or perpetration, empirical evidence of overlap between hate speech and bullying was also identified, while definitions and assessment instruments varied considerably across studies.
The authors conclude by outlining various implications for practice, policy, and future research, and proposing the following definition of hate speech:
“Hate speech is a derogatory expression (e.g., words, posts, text messages, images, videos) about people (directly or vicariously) on the basis of assigned group characteristics (e.g., ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion). Hate speech is based on an intention to harm and it has the potential to cause harm on multiple different levels (e.g., individual, communal, societal).”
Learn more about this review here: https://doi.org/10.1177/15248380221108070
Reference
Kansok-Dusche, J., Ballaschk, C., Krause, N., Zeißig, A., Seemann-Herz, L., Wachs, S., & Bilz, L. (2022). A Systematic Review on Hate Speech among Children and Adolescents: Definitions, Prevalence, and Overlap with Related Phenomena. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 24(4), 2598-2615