Hate Crime Investigations and Offender Profiles: A National Survey of U.S. Law Enforcement Agencies

The purpose of this study is to provide the field with detailed, nationally representative data on hate crime incidents known to police. The data collected in this study will be used to determine how agency level policies affect the reporting of hate crimes, identify offender typologies, and assess investigative practices and prosecution strategies that are associated with successful prosecution of hate crimes. The project will use a multi-phase study of 3,000 law enforcement agencies to collect information on: 1) rates of hate crime incidents reported to law enforcement, including the proportion that end in arrest; 2) challenges that confront investigators in defining, investigating, and documenting hate crimes; 3) typologies of hate crimes and hate crime offenders; 4) criminal pathways to hate crime offending based on case data and prior arrest histories; and 5) agency polices, and investigation and prosecution strategies associated with more favorable outcomes for hate crime offenses. The first phase will be a mail survey to a stratified random sample of law enforcement agencies, followed by phone interviews focused on a random sample of 1,500 hate crime cases, with an oversampling of cases in which an arrest occurred. The third phase will involve 250 prosecutor interviews, sampling from all cases that ended in arrest. "Note: This project contains a research and/or development component, as defined in applicable law," and complies with Part 200 Uniform Requirements - 2 CFR 200.210(a)(14). CA/NCF