Locked Down, Lashing Out: COVID-19 Effects on Asian Hate Crimes in Italy

COVID-19 caused a major health crisis and an economic crisis, conditions identified as conducive to stigmatization and hostility against minority groups. It is however unclear whether the threat of infection triggers hate crimes in addition to stigmatization and whether such a reaction can happen at the onset of an unexpected economic shock, before social hierarchies can be disrupted. Leveraging variation across Italian municipalities, we show that (i) hate crimes against Asians increased substantially at the pandemic onset and that (ii) the increase was concentrated in cities with higher expected unemployment but not higher excess mortality. We then examine individual, local, and national mobilization as potential mechanisms and find evidence suggesting that (iii) a xenophobic national discourse and local far-right institutions motivate hate crimes, while we find no strong support for the role of individual prejudice. Our study identifies new conditions triggering hateful behavior, advancing our understanding of factors hindering migrant integration.

Open Educational Resource Exercises for Fisheries Classes

Open Educational Resources (OERs) represent any form of educational resource that is available free of charge. Few OERs exist for courses in fisheries or other life science courses, and the onset of the COVID-19 epidemic only exacerbates the need for such resources. To rectify this shortcoming, we build on earlier work (Grossman and Chernoff 2018) and present four OERs designed for fisheries classes. The OERs may be used as described or may be modified for different class levels by varying their complexity and outcomes. The OERs examine behavioral repertoires and time budgets of Arctic Grayling Thymallus arcticus, factors affecting winners and losers of intraspecific interactions in interior Dolly Varden Charr Salvelinus malma, the effects of velocity on foraging success of Brook Trout S. fontinalis, and an exploration of animal abundance and spatial distributions in a soft-bottom habitat at 875m depth in Monterey Bay, California. We also provide a grading rubric for the first exercise that is easily modified for the other exercises. These exercises should aid fisheries instructors in a time when remote pedagogy may be a necessity. © 2020 American Fisheries Society