Role of Law Enforcement in Combating Hate Crimes

Controlling Legislation

Role of the Law Enforcement Community

The Role of the Law Enforcement Community in Combatting Hate Crimes

Hate crimes are a form of domestic terrorism. They send the poisonous message that some Americans deserve to be victimized solely because of who they are. Like other acts of terrorism, hate crimes have an impact far greater than the impact on the individual victims. They are crimes against entire communities, against the whole nation, and against the fundamental ideals on which America was founded. They are a violation of all our country stands for. -- Senator Edward Kennedy, Remarks on the Matthew Shepard Act (September 25, 2007)

The epigraph above is a useful description of the monumental impact that hate crimes can have on American society and underscores the importance of the law enforcement community in combatting these crimes. Although there were some high-profile hate crimes committed in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the actual number of hate crimes that have been committed in the United States over the past decade or so, with the exception of sexual orientation-related hate crimes, has actually decreased. To determine the facts, this paper reviews the literature to provide a background and overview of the hate crime problem in the United States, the controlling legislation that has been enacted to address the problem, and the role of the law enforcement community in combatting hate crimes. A summary of the research and important findings concerning recent trends in hate crime law enforcement are provided in the paper's conclusion.

Review and Discussion

Background and Overview

The human condition is frequently characterized by some people harboring various negative attitudes concerning a specific group and these individuals subsequently commit crimes against those they consider to be members of this group and these types of crimes are frequently termed "hate crimes." Hate crimes can be fueled by a wide range of perceived differences in other groups of people. For instance, Isaacs (2007) reports that, "Individuals have been beaten to death because of their sexual orientation, lynched because of the color of their skin, or shot because of their religious affiliation" (p. 32). The Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990 defines hate crimes as "crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, gender or gender identity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity." According to Brunker, Alba and Dedmon (2014), though, "For reporting purposes, it does not matter whether or not the perpetrators of the crime were ever charged with a hate crime" (Hate crime in America by the numbers, para. 3).

These so-called "hate crimes" are regarded as being more serious than corresponding simple crimes because of the "hate" factor that is involved. In this regard, Issacs (2007) notes that, "Some people believe that when a crime against an individual is motivated by a negative attitude about a particular group, for example, gay men, the crime is aggravated" (p. 32). This view means that an assault on an individual perceived as gay that is motivated by a fundamental negative attitude about gays in general is considered more serious than a simple assault on an individual for other reasons (Isaacs, 2007).

Not everyone agrees with this perspective, though, and some authorities argue that many hate crimes are motivated by the same factors that cause other types of violent encounters rather than internalized negative attitudes. In this regard, Jacobs (1999) asked early on, "Should hate be a crime?" And noted that, "Most of the cases that are labeled hate crimes result from impulsive behavior or situational disputes, often involving juveniles" (p. 4). Other authorities maintain that the current push for even more draconian hate crime laws is a redundancy that has been fueled by self-interests rather than the best interests of the country. For example, Heriot (2009) suggests that:

The real reason for hate crime laws is not the defense of human beings from crime. There are already laws against that ... The real reason for the invention of hate crimes was a hard-left critique of conventional liberal justice and the emergence of special interest groups which need boutique legislation to raise funds for their large staffs and luxurious buildings. (p. 18)

As recent events across the country had vividly demonstrated, however, race-related hate crimes in particular have become extremely high-profile events that can devastate an otherwise safe community. As Dredge (2009) emphasizes, "Even cities with healthy relations among diverse groups can experience tension if hate crimes are not publicly condemned by local leaders, if residents feel local police will not protect them, or if perpetrators are not prosecuted as criminals" (p. 3). The local police agency in Ferguson, Missouri can certainly testify to this undesirable outcome.

Although not always called such, hate crimes have always been a problem in the United States, these crimes did not become more frequent following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 to the surprise of many law enforcement authorities. For example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) annual data concerning hate crime prevalence in the United States showed that in 2012, law enforcement agencies reported a total of 5,796 hate crimes versus 8,759 incidents in 1995, which was the first year these statistics were published by the FBI) (Trout, 2015). These general decreases have been attributed to a corresponding decline in the number of violent crimes generally during the same period of time (Trout, 2015). As shown in Figure 1 below, the types of hate crime incidents in the United States during the period from 1995 through 2012 were categorized according to race/ethnicity/origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability and multiple-bias.

Figure 1. Type of hate crime incidents in the United States: 1992-2012

Source: http://media2.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2014_16/326416/140415-hate-crimes-by-type-2258_8f2eb71bfa345ac0669fad850cfd4b8d.nbcnews-ux-600-480.jpg

As can be seen in Figure 1 above, race/ethnicity/origin remains the largest category of hate crimes by far, but there are some significant racial differences involved in these prevalence rates as shown in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2. Race in incidents of hate crimes in the United States: 1995-2012

Source: http://media4.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2014_16/326421/140415-hate-crimes-by-race-2259_8f2eb71bfa345ac0669fad850cfd4b8d.nbcnews-ux-600-480.jpg

Although the overall number of hate crimes has declined since the mid-1990s, the decline in the types of hate crimes involved has not been consistent and in some cases there have even been increases. For instance, sexual orientation-related hate crimes have increased from 1,016 incidents in 1996 (or 11.65% of the total) compared to 1,135 (or 19.6% of the total) in 2012 (Trout, 2015). According to Trout, "This represents an 8% increase in the proportion of hate crimes based on sexual orientation. Moreover, in absolute terms, the number of hate crimes based on sexual orientation has remained constant even as violent crime more generally has fallen dramatically" (2015, p. 132).

It remains unclear, though, whether this 8% increase is attributable to improved identification and reporting by law enforcement authorities by categorizing crimes as being hate-motivated rather than as a simple crime or an actual increase in the number of sexual orientation-related crimes (Trout, 2015). Moreover, all crimes are not reported and among those that are reported, they may be inappropriate categorized by law enforcement authorities making the precise calculation of the prevalence of any type of hate crime even more difficult (Trout, 2015). Some indication of the prevalence of sexual orientation-related hate crimes can be discerned from a Pew Research Center report from June 2013 that found about 30% of lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender (LGBT) individuals had been the target of threats or actual physical assaults due to their sexual orientation or gender identity at least once during their lifetimes (Trout, 2013). As Trout concludes, "Thus regardless of whether looking through the lenses of crimes reported or community perceptions, hate crimes remain a concern. Accordingly, difficulties with enforcing hate crime statutes also remain important" (2015, p. 132).

The most recent FBI report on hate crime statistics shows a further increase in sexual orientation-related hate crimes to 20.8% as depicted in Figure 3 below.

Figure 3. Bias breakdown of hate crimes in the United States in 2013 (of the 5,928 hate crime incidents reported in 2013, 5,922 were single-bias offenses)

Source: https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/december/latest-hate-crime-statistics-report-released/image/bias-breakdown-chart/@@images/7626f0e5-cce9-472b-9ffc-3719e5beadf1.jpeg

As shown in Figure 3 above, hate crimes are categorized as being the result of negative attitudes about sexual orientation, racial, ethnicity, gender identity, disability, and religious, in other words, the full spectrum of factors that can distinguish anyone from mainstream society. It is also noteworthy that many disabled people also report being the ongoing target of hate crimes (Stevens, 2011).

Some of the key findings to emerge from the FBI's most recent report on hate crimes in the United States in 2013 include the following:

Of the 5,928 incidents reported, six were multiple-bias hate crime incidents involving 12 victims.

Of the 5,922 single bias incidents reported, the top three bias categories were race (48.5%), sexual orientation (20.8%), and religion (17.4%).

Of the reported 3,407 single-bias hate crime offenses that were racially motivated, 66.4 were motivated by anti-black or African-American bias, and 21.4% stemmed from anti-white bias.

60.6% of the reported 1,402 hate crime offenses based on sexual orientation were classified as anti-gay (male) bias.

Law enforcement agencies identified 5,814 known offenders in the 5,928 bias-motivated incidents. Of these offenders, 52.4% were white and 24.3% were black or African-American.

Of the 6,933 hate crime offenses reported in 2013, 63.9% were crimes against persons (e.g., intimidation, assaults, rapes, murders), while 35% were property crimes (mostly acts of destruction/damage/vandalism). The rest were considered crimes against society (like drug offenses or prostitution) (Latest hate crime statistics report released, 2014, para. 2).

Many authorities agree, though, that the actual number of hate crimes that are committed in the United States each year is far higher than these statistics indicate because many such crimes go unreported (Dredge, 2009). There are several laws on the books, though, that mandate hate crime-related law enforcement and these are discussed further below.

Controlling Legislation

The history of hate crime-related legislation in the United States dates to the latter half of the 19th century, but more recently, the Matthew Shepard-James Byrd Hate Crime Prevention Act ("HCPA") was signed into law on October 29, 2009 by President Barack Obama (Simmons, 2012). The HCPA expanded the federal government's authority to prosecute hate crimes (also termed "bias-motivated crimes") in two fundamental ways:

1. The HCPA grants broad authority to the federal government to prosecute defendants accused of perpetrating violent acts because of the victim's actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, and, unlike other federal legislation, the HCPA expands this class of victims to also include those victimized because of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability; and,

2. In contrast to pre-existing federal hate crimes legislation, the HCPA does not require victims to be engaged in federally protected activities when the crime occurs (Simmons, 2012, p. 1864).

There were already a number of federal statutes that were targeted at hate crimes prior to the enactment of the HCPA, including most especially the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 (enacted in response to widespread violence against recently freed African-Americans in the South during Reconstruction), the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (this legislation was intended to "strengthen the capability of the Federal Government to meet the problem of violent interference, for racial or other discriminatory reasons, with a person's free exercise of civil rights"), the Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990 (the primary purpose of this law is to collect statistics concerning the prevalence of hate crimes in the U.S.), and the Hate Crime Sentencing Enhancement Act of 1995 (this law provided for enhanced penalties for defendants prosecuted for bias-related crimes); however, individually and collectively, these laws did not provide the wide range of protections that are contained in the HCPA (Simmons, 2012, p. 1865). In addition, in 2007, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 was proposed but remains pending review by the U.S. Congress (Lawrence, 2008).

Most recently, the FBI approved the Criminal Justice Information Services Division's Advisory Policy Board's recommendation to expand the bias types in the religious category of hate crimes to include all of the religions that have been identified by the Pew Research Center and the U.S. Census Bureau (Latest hate crime statistics report released, 2014). In addition, on January 1, 2015, the hate crime data collection procedures were changed to include an anti-Arab bias motivation. Data collection for both types of hate crimes also began on January 1, 2015 (Latest hate crime statistics report released, 2014).

Role of the Law Enforcement Community

Clearly, the proper role of the law enforcement community in combatting hate crimes in multifaceted, ranging from enforcing the laws that are on the books to coordinate their efforts with other law enforcement agencies at the local, state and federal levels. In addition, the law enforcement community at all levels is responsible for the correct categorization of crimes in their respective jurisdictions in order to ensure that accurate statistics are provided to the FBI and other stakeholder. Timely and accurate hate crime statistics reporting is essential in order to fine-tune enforcement efforts at the local and national levels. Some recent examples of collaborative efforts between the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division in enforcing hate crime legislation include the following:

In November 2014, a Texas man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for luring a young gay man to his home and brutally assaulting him because of his sexual orientation.

In September 2014, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan pleaded guilty for his role in a cross burning in front of an interracial family's home in Tennessee.