Hate Crimes Hurt More, but so Do Co-Offenders: Separating the Influence of Co-Offending and Bias on Hate-Motivated Physical Injury

Abstract

One of the primary motivations for hate crime laws is that hate crimes “hurt more.” But hate crimes are often committed by groups, and research indicates that crimes committed by groups are also more violent than other crimes. This research focuses on one type of harm, physical injury, asking, are hate crimes more violent because they involve co-offenders or because of the bias motivation behind the incident? Results using data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) indicate that hate crimes are positively associated with serious injury, but that this association is partially driven by co-offenders. More importantly, co-offending moderates this relationship: Incidents involving bias and co-offending are especially violent. Anti-sexual orientation incidents were an exception to this pattern, however, and are likely to be violent regardless of co-offending. These results suggest that hate crimes do hurt more, but that this relationship is partially attributable to the influence of co-offenders.