The Law Enforcement Response to Hate Crimes

This chapter looks at the reasons the law enforcement response to hate crimes has been largely ineffective and the impact this has on the capacity for researchers to accurately measure hate crime. The chapter begins by looking at the magnitude of evidence of law enforcement underreporting. Moreover, the burgeoning number of police agencies that voluntarily participate in the UCR Hate Crime Statistics program is contrasted against the negligible increase in police reported hate crimes over the three decades of the program. The chapter reviews the sequential steps involved in reporting beginning with the victim’s decision to report and the first responding police officer’s inclination and ability to accurate classify hate crimes. Explanations for law enforcement underreporting including the inability to accurate classify hate crimes at the moment of the criminal incident are covered. Lastly, chapter 8 reviews research that found that police agencies with written hate crime enforcement and reporting policies and formal hate crime training are more likely to report hate crimes.