Stereotypical Hate Crimes and Criminal Justice Processing: A Multi-Dataset Comparison of Bias Crime Arrest Patterns by Offender and Victim Race

Many hate crimes are not reported and even fewer hate crimes result in an arrest. This study investigates patterns of victim reporting and arrest for hate crimes in two parts. First, using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey, we find that, controlling for offense severity, hate crimes are less likely than non-bias crimes to be reported to the police and that the police are less likely to take further action for hate crimes, compared to non-hate crimes. Second, we use data from the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission and the National Incident-Based Reporting System to compare differences between types of hate crimes in the likelihood of crime clearance. We find that those hate crimes most likely to result in arrest are those that fit the profile of a “stereotypical” hate crime: violent incidents, incidents committed by hate groups, and incidents involving white offenders and black victims.     

The Context of Minority Group Threat: Race, Institutions, and Complying with Hate Crime Law

A wealth of research suggests a direct association between minority group size and government social control, such as arrest or imprisonment rates. Prior work in this vein, however, gives scant attention to (1) types of law that explicitly address intergroup conflict and (2) regional variation in the salience of minority group threat. At the same time, research on organizational responses to law indicates that institutional linkages to legal environments dictate policy innovation and compliance, yet the relevance of such linkages for law enforcement agencies is less clear. The present research investigates these themes by focusing on law enforcement responses to hate crime in the United States. Data from a sample of large municipal and county policing agencies and their degree of compliance with the federal Hate Crimes Statistics Act are analyzed. Main effects models show that compliance with federal hate crime law is less likely in places with larger black populations, an intriguing finding in light of extant work suggesting that both formal social control and race-based hate crime offending are typically more prevalent where more blacks reside. This effect of black population size on compliance with hate crime law, however, is contingent on region. A positive correlation in the Northeast contrasts with an inverse association in the South. The findings also suggest that organizational facets of law enforcement agencies, notably their engagement in community policing, are associated with compliance. The results elaborate and qualify group threat explanations of government social control and contribute to a burgeoning literature on the utility of organizational theory in the realm of law enforcement.     

Tough-on-Crime Tolerance: The Cultural Criminalization of Bigotry in the Post-Civil Rights Era

This article extends critical scholarship on the problem of hate crimes in the U.S. into the field of cultural criminology. Highlighting the role cultural production plays in reinforcing identity-based social harms, this study analyzes the cultural construction of the figure of the white hate crimes perpetrator, or “the hater.” The article integrates findings from a comprehensive discourse analysis of major U.S. news sources from 1986 to 2010 with insights from the fields of whiteness studies and critical criminology. The study first finds that the figure of the hater embodies modern day bigotry through terse stereotypes about white poverty, masculinity, hate group membership, and criminality. It then argues that these widely distributed discursive performances create rhetorical opportunities to define bigotry as an individualized problem with law enforcement remedies and to further normalize extreme hate crimes cases. Ultimately, a new theoretical construct, “post-difference ideology,” is mobilized to challenge the hater’s prescribed role as folk devil.     

Women’s Knowledge of the Domestic Violence Legislation in Erbil,Iraq and their Response to Spousal Violence

This study assessed the knowledge of 82 married women about existing legislations and law enforcement structure in Iraqi Kurdistan region to combat violence against women and women’s response to spousal violence. A female physician interviewed the participants using a specially designed questionnaire. The women possessed good knowledge about the presence of legislation (76.8 %) and related law enforcement structure (70.7 % to 74.4 %) to combat violence against women, but they lacked adequate knowledge about how to contact the law enforcement agencies. Women’s response to spousal violence primarily included self-defense (37.8 %) or keeping silent (26.8 %), rather than seeking justice (4.9 %). Women’s educational status was positively associated with reporting violence to police (52.1 % vs 29.4 %, p = 0.041) and the health staff (62.5 % vs 35.3 %, p = 0.015). Further research is needed to explore the reasons behind women’s poor knowledge of the details of the existing law enforcement structure and women’s reluctance to seek justice.     

Hate crimes in Pennsylvania, 1984–99: Case characteristics and police responses

To gain a better understanding of factors related to the occurrence and processing of hate crimes, we examined 2,031 hate-crime incidents reported to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission from 1984 to 1998. The results of multilevel random coefficient analyses indicated that the frequency and severity of hate incidents, as well as police involvement in response to hate crimes, were significantly related to individual-and community-level influences. Furthermore, some characteristics of victims, offenders, and offenses were significant predictors of local police involvement, the composition of a county's population moderated the processing of hate crimes. Implications for reporting, policy, and future research on hate crimes are discussed.     

State-Level Determinants of Hate Crime Reporting: Examining the Impact of Structural and Social Movement Influences

In this article, we investigate factors affecting hate crime policies by examining anti-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) hate crime reports as a type of policy implementation. Analyzing state-level data drawn primarily from the US Census between 1995 and 2008, we examine how structural and social movement mobilization factors explain hate crime reporting. We find that anti-LGBT hate crimes are more likely to be reported in more urbanized states and in states with both split political elites and a greater number of LGBT social movement organizations. We discuss the implications of our findings for separating the drivers of policy passage from policy implementation and for complementary criminological and social movement explanations for hate crime reporting.     

To protect and collect: a nationwide study of profit-motivated police crime

This study is part of a larger research project on police crime in the United States. Police crimes are those criminal offenses committed by sworn law enforcement officers who have the general powers of arrest. Profit-motivated police crime involves officers who use their authority of position to engage in crime for personal gain. This study reports the findings on 1,591 cases where a law enforcement officer was arrested for one or more profit-motivated crimes during the seven-year period 2005–2011. The profit-motivated arrest cases involved 1,396 individual officers employed by 782 state, local, special, constable, and tribal law enforcement agencies located in 531 counties and independent cities in 47 states and the District of Columbia. Our data is the first systematic study of profit-motivated police crime. The study describes the nature of this form of police misconduct in terms of several dimensions, including the characteristics of police who perpetrate these crimes, where it occurs, the specific criminal charges, and the contexts within which profit-motivated police crime is punished through police agencies and the criminal courts.     

„So,what's a hate crime anyway?” young adults' perceptions of hate crimes,victims, and perpetrators

Male and female young adults provided responses to open-ended questions about hate crimes. Results indicated considerable variability in their definitions, with perceptions of hate crimes differing with regard to demographic characteristics of both victims and perceivers. Victims may experience hate crimes differently because of who they are, why they are victimized, and with whom they share their experiences. In a separate study, males and females each evaluated a scenario of a hate crime perpetrated upon a male or female victim. Whether the crime was described as motivated by racial or religious bigotry, heterosexism, or was ambiguous was systematically varied. The demographic status of the participant appeared to determine how disruptive they regarded the crime scenario, and the likelihood that they would report personal knowledge of a victim of a similar type of assault. None of the participants was likely to report knowledge of a victim of a heterosexist assault. Policy implications of results from both studies are discussed.     

“A CROSS-BURNING IS NOT JUST AN ARSON”: POLICE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF HATE CRIMES IN BALTIMORE COUNTY*

Growing public concern over racial and ethnic conflict and a perceived increase in hate crimes during the 1980s have led to legislation expanding the scope of the law and the severity of punishment for such offenses and to police-initiated efforts to focus attention on hate crimes. Although a number of critiques have examined the legislative approach, little attention has been devoted to the police response. This article examines the rationale for a police initiative in addressing hate crimes; the characteristics of incidents labeled as such in one jurisdiction, Baltimore County, Maryland; and some of the problems in defining, identifying, and verifying bias motivation. Because about 40% of the offenses initially considered by the Baltimore County Police Department to be motivated by racial, religious, or ethnic (RRE) prejudice subsequently are not verified as RRE motivated, a closer examination of all such cases permits insight into the social construction of “bias motivation” and related issues raised by a police hate-crime program. These include determining what forms of bias are eligible for special responses; identifying bias motivation; weighing the victim's perception of the event; determining the line between criminal and non-criminal incidents; and adopting consistent standards for verifying ambiguous events.     

论社会转型期警察刑事执法的秩序价值

社会转型对社会秩序产生深刻影响,极易出现社会失序,严重的犯罪形势即为社会失序的一个显著表现。警察刑事执法主要体现为对预防和惩治犯罪。当前,我国正处于社会转型期,面对刑事犯罪高发的局面,应当赋予公安机关更有效的打击犯罪的权力,提高警察刑事执法效率以及公平正义执法,以遏制犯罪的高发态势,维护社会秩序稳定。     

粤港澳刑事警务执法合作的内容与机制构建

随着近年来跨境犯罪的增加,粤港澳警方的刑事警务执法合作体系的构建也越来越趋于成熟,刑事警务执法合作的内容与机制已经初具模型,对中国区际刑事执法合作的研究具有示范性意义。司法实践主体在代为调查取证、送达法律文书、情报交流、缉捕遣送通缉犯、追缴和移交赃款赃物、刑事案件管辖移交、学术交流等合作内容的基础上逐步构建了完整的粤港澳合作机制。     

The Reconstitution of Law in Local Settings: Agency Discretion, Ambiguity, and a Surplus of Law in the Policing of Hate Crime

An important yet poorly understood function of law enforcement organizations is the role they play in distilling and transmitting the meaning of legal rules to frontline law enforcement officers and their local communities. In this study, we examine how police and sheriff's agencies in California collectively make sense of state hate crime laws. To do so, we gathered formal policy documents called “hate crime general orders” from all 397 police and sheriff's departments in the state and conducted interviews with law enforcement officials to determine the aggregate patterns of local agencies' responses to higher law. We also construct a “genealogy of law” to locate the sources of the definitions of hate crime used in agency policies. Despite a common set of state criminal laws, we find significant variation in how hate crime is defined in these documents, which we attribute to the discretion local law enforcement agencies possess, the ambiguity of law, and the surplus of legal definitions of hate crime available in the larger environment to which law enforcement must respond. Some law enforcement agencies take their cue from other agencies, some follow statewide guidelines, and others are oriented toward gaining legitimacy from national professional bodies or groups within their own community. The social mechanisms that produce the observed clustering patterns in terms of approach to hate crime law are mimetic (copying another department), normative (driven by professional standards about training and community social movement pressure), and actuarial (affected by the demands of the crime data collection system). Together these findings paint a picture of policing organizations as mediators between law‐on‐the‐books and law‐in‐action that are embedded in interorganizational networks with other departments, state and federal agencies, professional bodies, national social movement organizations, and local community groups. The implications of an interorganizational field perspective on law enforcement and implementation are discussed in relation to existing sociolegal research on policing, regulation, and recent neo‐institutional scholarship on law.     

Using typologies of victimization worry to create strategies for reducing fear of crime

The purpose of this paper is to develop actionable strategies designed for law enforcement agencies seeking to reduce fear of crime among those living within their jurisdictions. A conjunctive analysis of case configurations is conducted on data collected from residents living in southeast Queensland (Australia) (N = 713) in order to identify context-specific typologies of victimization worry. Main effects for each component of the typologies are examined in order to identify the impact each has on reducing negative attitudes towards crime. Current findings suggest that agencies will likely reduce fear of crime among community residents the most by focusing on decreasing concerns related to the consequences of victimization. Results are consistent for both crimes against persons and property offenses.     

Attitudes toward hate crime laws

The research reported here was a survey study exploring attitudes toward hate crime laws and possible causes of such attitudes. In a path model, which was supported by the data, it was found that the major factor determining acceptance or rejection of a hate crime law was whether or not homosexuals would be included as a protected group: those wanting inclusion supporting such a law, and those not wanting inclusion opposing such a law. Consistent with identity politics theory, the data-supported model further found that both social and economic liberals, and people who thought hate crimes created fear in other members of the victim's group, wanted homosexuals included in hate crime laws. Other findings, however, were inconsistent with the identity politics theory position that this movement was a united front. Other results from the data-supported model are also discussed and explanations are provided.     

The criminal justice response to wife assault

This paper reviews the criminal justice response to wife assault. By establishing a set of conditional probabilites for the reporting, detection, prosecution, and conviction for wife assault, the paper establishes that a “winnowing process” occurs that is not dissimilar to that reported for other crimes. The probability of wife assault being detected by the criminal justice system is about 6.5%. Given that it is detected, the probability of arrest is about 21.2% [comparable to a 20% arrest rate for a composite of 121 crimes reported by Hood and Sparks (1970)]. Subsequent conditional probabilities for conviction and punishment generate an aggregate probability that, given that an event of wife assault occurs, the perpetrator has a 0.38% chance of being punished by the courts. The policy implications of this review are that the greatest impact on wife assault recidivism reduction would be generated by police arrest rates regardless of court outcome. At present, however, it is not known whether this effect is produced by specific deterrence or by the didactic function of law. It is concluded that too little is known of the subjective states of wife assaulters to ascertain whether deterrence or some other mechanism accounts for the decreased recidivism reported after arrest.     

Sex differences in the likelihood of arrest

Using data from the new National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), this study analyzed the impact of a criminal offender's sex on the likelihood of arrest for 555,752 incidents of kidnapping, forcible rape, forcible fondling, robbery, aggravated assault, simple assault, and intimidation in nineteen states and the District of Columbia during 2000. The data used in this study advanced the literature by enabling the authors to determine the likelihood of arrest for males and females based on sex-specific offending as reported by crime victims. Controlling for offense seriousness and a variety of other factors, logistic regression results showed that the probability of arrest for females was 28 percent lower for kidnapping, 48 percent lower for forcible fondling, 9 percent lower for simple assault, and 27 percent lower for intimidation than for males. A supplemental analysis also revealed that Black females had a higher probability of arrest than did White females for aggravated and simple assault. No discernable impact of an offender's sex on the prospect of arrest was noted for the crimes of forcible rape and robbery. Overall, these findings suggest that the lower arrest rate for females is partly the result of leniency shown women by law enforcement personnel.     

Hate crimes on campus: racial/ethnic diversity and campus safety

Colleges and universities across the US have prioritized minority enrollments in their recruitment strategies, but theories offer to possible outcomes of increasing diversity on campus-increased racial harmony or increased racial tension. This study examines the impact of racial diversity on the reported number of hate crimes that occur on campus. Findings suggest that those schools that are most successful in recruiting the hardest to recruit minorities (Black and Latino students) report fewer hate crimes on campus. Implications for campus climate and racial dynamics on campus, as well as future research, are discussed.     

The contract murderer: patterns, characteristics, and dynamics

A case of an independent professional contract murderer, who killed over 100 people, is reported. After eluding law enforcement for 30 years, the subject killed several associates who he believed could implicate him in various crimes. These homicides eventually led to his arrest, since the victims were individuals who could be linked to him. This hit man had a background of poverty and childhood abuse but, as an adult, had pursued a middle-class lifestyle and kept his family totally separate from his criminal career. In addition, he had a number of characteristics that helped him carry out his crimes in a highly planned, methodical, and organized manner: he had adept social judgment; personality traits of orderliness, control, and paranoid vigilance; useful defense mechanisms of rationalization and reframing; and an exceptional ability to encapsulate emotions. This case is discussed within the context of contract murder, a crime that occurs relatively frequently and is probably increasing; yet it often goes undetected, the arrest rate is low, and the offender is rarely studied.     

The Hate Crime Canon and Beyond: A Critical Assessment

Although it remains an empirical question whether the U.S. is experiencing greater levels of hate-motivated-conduct than in the past, it is beyond dispute that the concept of ‘hate crime’ has been institutionalized in social, political, and legal discourse in the U.S. From the introduction and politicization of the term hate crime in the late 1970s to the continued enforcement of hate crime law at the beginning of the twenty-first century, social movements have constructed the problem of bias-motivated violence in particular ways, while politicians at both the federal and state level have made legislation that defines the parameters of hate crime. Accordingly, this article identifies and examines the parameters of a hate crime canon in the U.S., which can first and foremost be described as a body of law that 1) provides anew state policy action, by either creating anew criminal category, altering an existing law, or enhancing penalties for select extant crimes when they are committed for bias reasons; 2) contains an intent standard, which refers to the subjective intention of the perpetrator rather than relying solely on the basis of objective behavior; and 3) specifies a list of protected social statuses, such as race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, disabilities, etc. Arguing that these features constitute the core parameters of the hate crime canon and attendant discourse in the U.S., this article offers a critical assessment of the emergence, institutionalization, and arguable consequences of ‘hate crime’ as a recently developed social fact - in the Durkheimian sense of the word - that is consequential for the politics of victimization in the modern era and the social control of violence against minorities more particularly. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.