Hate Crime Offenders Research Articles

Assessment of Hate Crime Offenders: The Role of Bias Intent in Examining Violence Risk

ABSTRACT This study investigated the criminal histories and violence risk of a sample of 204 hate crime offenders. Record review of the offender's criminal history was rated on the HCR-20 and Cormier-Lang scales. Crime reports were rated for the severity of the bias offense on the Victim Functional Impact scale and the offender's targeting of outgroup victims–i.e., the bias intent. Findings indicated that 56% of the offenders had prior criminal convictions; HCR-20 ratings were comparable to those found in other offender groups and were correlated with the severity of the hate crime. The severity of the criminal history as measured on the Cormier-Lang scale, the number of prior arrests, and number of criminal convictions were significantly greater for offenders who targeted racial minority victims. Offenders who belonged to bias oriented groups had more extensive and violent criminal histories and committed more severe hate crimes. Findings are considered in terms of clinical intervention and risk assessment practices with hate crime offenders.

Terror Management in the Courtroom: Exploring the Effects of Mortality Salience on Legal Decision Making.

... When considering the powerful intimations of mortality an event like 9/11 could elicit, the legal ramifications can be quite disturbing. ... TMT research has explicated some of the cognitive and psychodynamic processes through which conscious and unconscious awareness of death impacts human social behavior (see Arndt, Cook, & Routledge, 2004; Pyszczynski, Greenberg, & Solomon, 1999 for reviews). ... Thus, on the surface, one would expect more punitive reactions to hate crime offenders when mortality is salient and people hear of a specific instance of a hate crime. ... The direction of bias instigated by thoughts of death would then depend on the nature of the juror's worldview. ... Whether a juror responds in a particular trial by upholding a legal process or by being more punitive or lenient toward a defendant can be understood as a function of the centrality of that domain to the person's belief system. ... First, recall that terror management findings have been obtained in a variety of countries, with a variety of participant populations (including actual municipal court judges), and with a variety of ecologically valid techniques of activating thoughts of death (e.g., prosecutors' statements, proximity to a funeral home) and measuring their effects. ... An existentialist view on mortality salience effects: Personal hardiness, death-thought accessibility, and cultural worldview defense. ...

Assessing the public's demand for hate crime penalties*

In this article, we analyze responses from a nationally representative sample of American adults to determine public attitudes toward punishment for hate crimes. While attitudinal polls find strong support for hate crime laws, criminological research provides reasons to believe that this support may be weaker than assumed. Our findings suggest that, while there is minimal public support for harsher penalties for offenders who commit hate crimes, attitudes toward punishment, treatment, and minority rights are predictive of preferences for differential treatment of hate crime offenders. We discuss possible implications of these results in our conclusion.

Symbolic, relational, and ideological signifiers of bias-motivated offenders: toward a strategy of assessment.

Developmental, ideological, and behavioral characteristics of 58 convicted hate crime offenders were examined. Ratings on the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version, HCR-20, and Bias Motivation Profile (BMP) were made via record review. Offense characteristics were rated on the Cornell Aggression Index and Cormier-Lang Crime Index. Results indicated that offenders with higher BMP scores engaged in more instrumental (i.e., premeditated) aggression and targeted racial-ethnic minority victims. Significant within-group variation in the prominence of offender bias motivation on the BMP was observed.

The Effects of Hate Crime Legislation: Unproven Benefits and Unintended Consequences

Despite most states' widespread adoption in the past 10 years of hate crime laws, researchers and policy-makers have been unable to measure the actual incidence or types of hate crimes being committed. Simply, there are no national data available on arrests or convictions for hate crimes. Ironically, while virtually all researchers have reported that hate crime has been increasing, the findings reported in this article indicate that hate crime incidents appear to have decreased 25% in the past 5 years. Also, despite the intent of legislators, the findings indicate that black persons comprise the only racial group, as identified by the FBI and Census Bureau, that are characterized as hate crime offenders (20% of the total number of offenders) in a proportion greater than their proportion in the general population (13%). It was concluded that to determine the actual implications of hate crime legislation, especially on minority group members, researchers might consider adopting a new methodology.

Hate crimes against the Amish: a qualitative analysis of bias motivation using routine activities theory

Research on hate crime has largely been limited to official statistics collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and some independent scholarly research of hate crime victims. Few, however, have studied hate crime offenders. Offender narratives of hate crime participation are the focus of this study. Further, few have studied hate crimes against the Amish and their offenders. This study examines hate crime against the Amish with a particular focus on the bias motivation that generates anti-Amish hate crime. To accomplish this task, non-Amish hate crime offenders were enlisted to share their experiences and stories about anti-Amish hate crime. A total of eight subjects were interviewed; the subjects supplied over 16 hours of audiotaped narrative describing acts of "Claping" they had committed against Old Order Amish. The data were transcribed and an analysis of the interview data revealed that themes emerged from offender narratives within each element of routine activities theory. The data support that the subjects were motivated offenders, the Amish were perceived as suitable targets, and there was a perception that guardians were lacking within the community to discourage anti-Amish hate crime. However, it is important to consider the themes that emerged within each dimension of routine activities when applying the theory to anti-Amish bias crime.

Hate Crime Offenders: An Expanded Typology

Little research has been conducted to determine the motivations of hate crime offenders. This article builds on an earlier work of J. Levin and McDevitt (1993) in which a typology of offender motivations was first articulated. We reanalyze 169 Boston police case files that were originally studied in order to provide empirical grounding for the typology. In this updated study, characteristics of the three original motives—thrill, defensive, and mission—are examined in relation to a new category: retaliatory motivation. In addition, the article addresses the issue of levels of culpability in explaining the most appropriate sanctions for certain kinds of hate offenders.