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...

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…