Sexual Orientation-Based Hate Crimes on Campus: The Impact of Policy on Reporting Rates

Abstract

Federal Bureau of Investigation data for the last 10 years have tracked sexual orientation-based hate crimes on university and college campuses. Many states have passed hate crime laws that include sexual orientation and laws that mandate law enforcement hate crime training. At the same time, many campuses have amended their institutional antidiscrimination policies to include sexual orientation. This article reports on a study that examined the impact of these three types of policies and how they affect hate crime reporting rates. Results indicated that institutions located in states with hate crime laws that include hate crimes, with mandated law enforcement training that includes hate crime content, and with their own institutional policy, report the highest rates of sexual orientation-based hate crimes. Given prior research findings that hate crimes are severely underreported, the author discusses the implications for state and institutional commitment on hate crime reporting rates.