Determinants of murders motivated by political, ideological, racial, ethnic or religious hatred or enmity, as well as by hatred or enmity towards a particular social group

Research of the issues of counteracting extremist crimes has recently become one of the most urgent tasks for both Russian and foreign criminologists. Russia is a multinational and multi-confessional state. This fact gives special importance to fighting extremist crimes, which is impossible without the analysis of the causal complex of murders motivated by political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred of enmity, as well as hatred or enmity towards a particular social group. The motive is a crucial element for understanding specific characteristics of an extremism act. An ideologically-motivated murder is caused by intolerant or hateful attitude of the perpetrator towards the victim resulting from the disagreement with his views, convictions, principles. A politically-motivated murder is caused by intolerance or hatred of the perpetrator towards the victim as a representative of alternative political views regarding the existing social order, a country’s economic structure, the political activity of public organizations, parties, movements. There are different levels of manifestations of extremist actions that differ in character and degree of public danger. The paper is devoted to researching specific traits and development trends for the factors that influence the contemporary condition and structure of extremism-motivated murders; the authors use them as a basis for the system of causes and conditions of such crimes. The paper analyses economic, political, legal, informational factors that define complex determinants of such crimes at the general social level. The authors suggest recognizing globalization and population migration (including illegal migration) that followed it as one of the determinants. They conclude that at the social and psychological level extremism-motivated murders are determined by the activities of organized small social groups. © 2016, Baikal National University of Economics and Law. All rights reserved.