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The current study introduces a method to assess hate crime classification error in a state Incident-Based Reporting System. The study identifies and quantifies the “statistical accuracy” of aggregate hate crime data and provides insight from frontline officers about thought processes involved with classifying bias offenses. Random samples of record...
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... reviewers agreed with the police classification of five reports that were bias- related crimes. A brief description of these cases is provided in Figure 3. While Case 1 is more detailed and the bias indicators may be more pronounced, the narrative from Case 2 is not that different from the previous undercount cases discussed in Figure 2. The last three case examples contain language suggesting bias against particular groups. ...
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... Between 2010 and 2019 just 13% of hate crimes that were actually reported were classified accordingly (Kena and Thompson 2021). Others have found that upwards of twothirds of hate crimes are incorrectly classified as well (see Nolan et al. 2015). Furthermore, the time elapsed between initial intake and a thorough investigation often precludes agencies from updating data pertaining to bias motivation; thereby undercounting hate crime incidents (U.S. ...
Hate crime has exhibited an alarming increase in many cities over the past few years. As a nation, the United States recorded 7759 in 2020, the highest number in 12 years according to the FBI. Researchers and police practitioners have long relied on “place-based” approaches to study and respond to crime, exploiting the strong and consistent concentration of crime within a small number of places. One tool that has proven utility directing place-based approaches is Risk Terrain Modeling (RTM). This study quantifies the degree to which hate crime is concentrated within place, and assesses whether micro-level risk factors identified by RTM, combined with mezzo-level neighborhood features, predict future hate crime. Results suggest these place-based tools can identify factors with a meaningful influence on the risk of hate crime.
... In recent years, the number of hate crimes reported by police has sharply increased from 6,885 offenses in 2015 to 8,496 offenses in 2018, with little change in National crime rates (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2016a, 2019FBI, n.d.;Masucci & Langton, 2017). Despite this spike, researchers find that hate crimes continue to be underreported by victims, unfounded by law enforcement, and difficult to prosecute (Cronin et al., 2007;Nolan et al., 2015). In 2016, for example, less than one in twenty reported hate crimes in California resulted in a conviction (Becerra, 2017). ...
... Not only do vague laws necessitate law enforcement's subjective judgment and provide for discretion (Martin, 1995), they can also lead to misclassification of hate crimes (Boyd et al., 1996). Nolan et al. (2015), for example, found classification errors and underreporting when examining hate crime records from multiple city and county police agencies. Specifically, officers reported complications with classifying bias motivated hate crimes. ...
... Specifically, officers reported complications with classifying bias motivated hate crimes. However, when officers did label a crime a hate crime, it tended to be because it was an obvious, clear-cut case or a case that "made headlines" (Nolan et al., 2015). Additionally, these laws are then left to the interpretation of law enforcement who have discretion. ...
Hate crimes have increased in frequency and types of crimes covered, drawing attention to state hate crime statutes. However, hate crime statutes are vague and inconsistent throughout the United States. Variation causes many Americans to no have legal protection against hate crimes and leads to underreporting of hate crimes. Due to this, victims differ in their legal protections, which causes arbitrary outcomes of justice. To evaluate the state of hate crime legislation, this study is a content analysis of all applicable hate crime statutes in the 50 states in the United States, and relevant themes were identified. The general theme of inconsistency was found in conceptualization, protected class and locations, official justice system responses, and victims’ services. Hate crime statutes need improvement which can be accomplished by states mirroring other effective statutes and by legislative action from the federal government.
... In 2018, there were 8,496 hate crimes reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), of which 16.5% (n = 1,404) were committed due to bias based on perceived sexual minority status (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2018). Studies indicate that these statistics significantly underestimate the true prevalence of hate crimes generally and specifically those targeting individuals based on their sexual orientation (e.g., King, 2007;Nolan et al., 2015). Briones-Robinson et al. (2016), using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey, estimated that approximately 70.7% of hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation were not reported to police. ...
Sexual minority youth are at elevated risk for suicide, and previous research supports an association between hate crimes targeting sexual minority youth and suicide attempts. Hate crime laws (HCLs) may reduce bias-motivated victimization or reflect community support for marginalized groups, although not all states with such laws explicitly name sexual minorities as a protected class. We used a quasi-experimental design to examine whether the inclusion of sexual orientation as an explicitly protected group within states' HCLs was associated with decreased suicide attempts among high school aged adolescents using data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Results showed that sexual minority youth attempted suicide at rates 2.9 to 4.3 times higher than heterosexual youth. The enactment of enumerated HCLs was associated with a small but significant 1.2-percentage point (95% confidence interval, CI [À1.8%, À0.6%], p , .001) reduction in suicide attempts among high school aged adolescents, and these reductions were not specific to sexual minority youth. Among sexual minority youth, enumerated HCLs were associated with larger reductions in suicide attempts among questioning and bisexual youth than gay and lesbian peers. By contrast, general HCLs that did not explicitly name sexual minorities as a protected group did not differ from the absence of any HCL in their association with suicide attempts (À.5%, 95% CI [À1.6%, 0.7%], p = .43). We conclude that HCLs may help to decrease rates of adolescent suicide attempt, but this potential appears to be contingent on naming sexual minorities as a protected group.
... Furthermore, media broadcasts of racialized police brutality and murders are yet another mode of community traumatization (Staggers-Hakim, 2016). The overall prevalence of racial and ethnic hate-based violence globally must be conceptualized not only within the context of micro-level hate crimes but also within the context of macro-level sociopolitically sanctioned violence, which would suggest that identity-based violence that targets racial and ethnic groups is systematically undercounted (Nolan et al., 2015). ...
Hate-based violence is increasingly recognized as an urgent social justice and human rights issue that is pervasive across geographical and socioeconomic boundaries. There is a growing body of research that demonstrates the traumatic impact of hate-based violence on the victim's mental and physical health. This review focuses on examining scientific knowledge and prevalence data on identity-based hate and violence exposure. A framework for conceptualizing hate-based violence as a traumatic event or series of traumatic events is offered as a means to understand research findings and intervention approaches. The importance of research, advocacy, and human rights training is highlighted in the efforts to address the traumatic impact of identity-based hate and violence.
... Hate crimes against Latinx victims have risen more precipitously with an increase of 39% between 2016 and 2018 1 (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2019a). Additionally, prior research has noted some potential challenges that may impact the "statistical accuracy" of data reported from the police (Nolan et al., 2015), further complicating our ability to measure the scope of bias-based victimization. Relatedly, prior research also points the possibility that the identification and investigative outcomes of hate crimes varies across crime types, with those that fit "stereotypical" hate crime being more likely to be identified and result in arrest (Lantz et al., 2019;Lyons & Roberts, 2014). ...
Objective: To contribute a more complete and accurate understanding of rates of bias victimization toward Latinxs using self-report data from a community sample. Method: Totally, 910 Latinx adults from Boston, San Diego, and Houston were recruited through partnerships with community agencies and self-selection during local Latinx-focused events through the Spring and Summer of 2018. The survey evaluated experiences with hate crime, bias victimization, and non-bias victimization in their lifetime and past year. Background demographic information including immigration and documentation status were also queried. Results: The overall lifetime bias victimization rate for respondents was 52.9%. When focusing specifically on hate crimes this percentage was 28.4%, while the noncriminal bias victimization rate was 50%. There was a significant relationship between prior to past year bias victimization and past year non-bias victimization. Inversely, prior to past year non-bias victimization was also associated with past year bias victimization. Conclusion: The results of this study illustrate the limited nature of existing data sets on hate crime that rely on officially reported incidents or national surveys. This study is also one of the first to examine co-existence with other forms of victimization.
... Oběti i policisté musejí zároveň naznat, že byl tento trestný čin předsudečně motivovaný. Jinými slovy, tím, co komplikuje adekvátní posouzení předsudečného trestného činu oproti tomu běžnému, je především nutnost objasnit pachatelovu pohnutku (Nolan et al., 2015). ...
... klasifikační chyba. Na základě porovnání statistických údajů s informacemi ze spisů bylo zjištěno, že dochází nejen k podhodnocení počtu předsudečných trestných činů, ale také k jeho nadhodnocování (McDevitt et al., 2003;Nolan et al., 2015;Ringnalda & Kool, 2012). Klasifikační chyba tudíž představuje jeden z typů zkreslení policejních statistik. ...
... Zjištění prezentovaná v této studii poukazují na určitou míru nespolehlivosti statistiky trestných činů s extremistickým podtextem. Podobné závěry vedly v zahraničí k vytvoření nezávislého auditu (viz McDevitt et al., 2003;McDevitt & Iwama, 2016;Nolan et al., 2015). Domníváme se, že v tuzemském kontextu by takový audit byl rovněž k prospěchu věci. ...
Police statistics serve as a basic tool for understanding the prevalence and nature of hate crimes, albeit with limited accuracy. This study focuses on statistics for crimes with an extremist context provided by the Czech police, which also includes bias crimes. The aim is to ascertain the extent to which police statistics correspond to the information available to criminal justice authorities. Following existing research on hate crime statistics, the analysis maps classification error, i.e., a situation in which statistical data do not correspond to the information provided by criminal justice authorities. A comparative analysis reveals that the number of bias crimes is higher than stated in police statistics and over half of the anti-Jewish, anti-Roma and anti-Muslim crimes are misclassified in terms of motive.
... Because of limited training like this, Boyd et al. (1996) found that many of the officers tasked with hate crime investigations noted the identification of motive to be difficult, with some officers noting that the concept of a hate crime was confusing to them. Nolan et al. (2015) similarly found, in research on focus groups with police officers, that officers believed most crimes could be explained by some motivation other than bias. Moreover, many officers indicated a perception that there were only a limited number of crimes that could actually be considered hate crimes and that 'true' hate crimes were rare or not a significant problem in the jurisdiction. ...
Hate is a global phenomenon as evidenced by recent increases in hate crimes in both the United States and the United Kingdom; unfortunately, these crimes are also substantially underreported in both nations. Following this, this research presents an examination of racially motivated hate crimes and victim reporting to the police in both nations using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey and the Crime Survey of England and Wales from 2003 to 2015. Results indicate that, overall, victim reporting has been increasing in the United Kingdom and decreasing in the United States. Disaggregating by victim and offender race, however, reveals divergent trends such that anti-black hate crime victim reporting is increasing in the United States and decreasing in the United Kingdom. Policy and research implications are discussed.
... The passage of the Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990 has facilitated the growth of empirical analysis concerning hate crimes and the factors that serve to influence their characteristics and prevalence. Specifically, the tracking of hate motivated crimes in both the Uniform Crime Reporting System (UCR) and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) has allowed researchers to analyze data on hate crimes at the local, state, and national level (Nolan, Turley, Stump, & LaValle, 2015). As such, the knowledge of these crimes has been able to flourish in recent years. ...
... The Summary UCR only provides aggregates of certain offenses, not including hate crime. Hate crimes are submitted and analyzed through NIBRS (Nolan et al., 2002;Nolan et al., 2015). ...
... Though beneficial, one significant limitation with HCSA is that law enforcement agencies are not mandated to submit data. This has contributed to the growth of a "dark figure of hate crime" that calls into question the validity of national estimates (Nolan et al., 2015). Only eighteen states mandate the collection of hate crime statistics, leaving agencies in other states with the choice of reporting hate crime statistics outside of any mandate. ...
Research on hate crime has tended to utilize sociological frameworks to best explain the incidence of such offending, but little research has been conducted to determine whether political factors may play a role. Although Olzak (1990) touched upon the relationship between racial violence and third-party politics during the American Progressive era (1882-1914), the research did not fully articulate how political competition may influence the commission of hate crime. The current study seeks to fill this gap, while also extending concepts associated with social disorganization theory and the defended communities perspective. It does so by utilizing a longitudinal research design to assess the impact of theoretical predictors and political competition measures on hate crime prevalence in counties across three states (Tennessee, Virginia & West Virginia) over a seven-year span (2010-2016).
... First, given that the hate-crime statistics were not disaggregated for the years 2006-2008 and include criminal offenses against a person or property motivated by bias against various identities (e.g., religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender, or gender identity), it may be that some of the hate crimes occurring on campus did not touch upon race and therefore would not influence the development of white students' views on racial discrimination, specifically. Additionally, many institutions may not report accurate information on hate crimes because of classification error (Nolan, Haas, Turley, Stump, & LaValle, 2015) and/or many students may not learn that a hate crime occurred on campus if the crime was not publicized. A high proportion of hate crimes also go unreported and violent hate crimes that were unreported due to a belief that police could not or would not help has increased (Sandholtz, Langton, & Planty, 2013). ...
Despite popular claims that the United States has reached a “post-racial” era—one in which race no longer matters for determining one’s life chances—college students continue to have strong views toward whether or not racial discrimination is still a major problem in this country. Utilizing multilevel modeling on data merged from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program’s (CIRP) 2005 Freshman Survey (TFS) and 2009 College Senior Survey (CSS), as well as the Integrated Postsecondary Educational Data System (IPEDS) and the Office of Postsecondary Education Campus Safety and Security database, this study examined individual and institutional predictors of white male and female college students’ senior-year views on whether racial discrimination is still a major problem in the United States, with a particular focus on campus racially biased incidents and hate crimes. Results show that having a reported hate crime on campus did not have a significant association with white students’ senior-year views, while a higher level of news coverage of campus racially biased incidents significantly predicted white women’s senior-year views on racial discrimination. Implications of the findings with respect to higher education research, policy, and practice are discussed.
... The reasons for such difficulty range from issues with conceptualization (Perry 2003:7) to states' selective recognition and invocation of criminal legislation (Perry 2003:44), police's failure to recognize a hate crime (McDevitt, et al. 2002: 304-305), and reporting errors (Nolan, Haas, Ruley, Stump, and LaValle 2015). To address these issues, Nolan et al. (2015Nolan et al. ( : 1584 suggests that "[s]eeking additional data from victims, and if possible, perpetrators of hate crime would enhance efforts for determining the role of bias." ...
I explore the relationships between hate group activity, community factors, and the likelihood of hate crime occurrence within a county area. I integrate considerations raised by Routine Activity and Social Control theorists as well as current hate crime literature to frame my concept of the hate manager, an agent of social control that utilizes hate crimes as a means of enacting extralegal self-help for hate groups. I explore the relationship between hate managers and hate crime by testing a model relating hate group activity and hate crime occurrences by location. Next, I correlate hate crime occurrences with hate group activity at the county level for the state of Virginia using public data. I find that a hate group's presence holds greater predictive power than nearly any other factor for hate crime likelihood. My findings illustrate the nature of hate crime as a means of social control; whereby hate groups act as a parochial order and maintain hierarchical relations between offenders and victims through means of disciplinary crimes. I conclude by outlining suggestions for future research into the role of the hate manager. Hate Managers and Where They Target: An Analysis of Hate Crime as Hate Group Self-Help General Audience Abstract In my thesis, I ask the question of how hate groups methodically encourage where hate crimes occur. I do this by creating the concept of the hate manager. Hate managers are figures which influence would-be criminals into their illegal acts. They do this by stoking the fears necessary for them to act outside legal boundaries in reaction to some feeling of threat, an act known as self-help. Hate crimes, I argue, are a form of self-help where the feeling of threat is directed towards individuals belonging to some marginalized group. By looking at data collected by various agencies in the state of Virginia, I discover that the presence of a hate group in a county is a stronger predictor for such acts than any other factor for hate crime likelihood. By doing so, I demonstrate that hate crimes are a form of social control. That is, I argue that hate groups maintain a sense of order or ranking by means of illegal and disciplinary self-help in the form of hate crimes. I conclude my thesis by outlining suggestions for future exploration of the hate manager's role.
