Violence born of hatred, bias, or prejudice has become the source of highly politicized public debate and subsequent mandates that “somebody do something.” Accordingly, many federal, state, county, and city officials have taken measures to curb hate-motivated violence through new legislation. This criminalization of hate is a fairly recent development in legal and criminal history, and it is not surprising that little scholarly attention has so far been paid to understanding the adoption of hate crime legislation throughout the United States. We describe the content and distribution of “hate crime” laws, also known as “bias crime” laws. Then, we rely upon a complete inventory of hate crime statutes in the United States and social indicator data to investigate the social forces shaping the adoption of one particular type of hate crime legislation, so-called “bias-motivated violence and intimidation” statutes. Logistic regression analyses are used to determine how various structural and political variables compare and interact in terms of their impact on the criminalization process. Our findings suggest that structural and political determinants of criminalization posited by contemporary theoretical arguments are insufficient to explain the recent criminalization of hate.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AldrichJohn H.NelsonForrest D.1984. Linear Probability, Logit, and Probit Models. Sage University Paper Series on Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences, Series No. 07–045. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
2.
Anti-Defamation League. 1991. “Hate Crimes Statutes: 1991 Status Report.”New York: Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith.
3.
BaileyWilliam C.1990. “Murder, Capital Punishment, and Television: Execution Publicity and Homicide Rates.”American Sociological Review55: 628–633.
4.
BaronLarryStrausMurray A.1989. Four Theories of Rape in American Society: A State Level Analysis. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
5.
BeckerHoward1963. Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. New York: The Free Press.
6.
BerkRichardBoydElizabeth AHamnerKarl M.1992. “Thinking More Clearly About Hate-Motivated Crimes.” Pp. 123–43 in Hate Crimes: Confronting Violence Against Lesbians and Gay Men, edited by HerekGregoryBerrillKevinNewbury Park, CA: Sage.
7.
BerryFrances StokesBerryWilliam D.1990. “State Lottery Adoptions as Policy Innovations: An Event History Analysis.”American Political Science Review84: 395–415.
8.
BelsleyD. A.KuhE.WelschR. E.1980. Regression Diagnostics: Identifying Influential Data and Sources of Collinearity. New York: Wiley.
9.
BensingerGad1992. “Hate Crimes: A New/Old Problem.”International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice16: 115–123.
10.
CallJack E.NiceDavidTalaricoSusette M.1991. “An Analysis of State Rape Shield Laws.”Social Science Quarterly72: 774–788.
11.
CanonBradley C.BaumLawrence1981. “Patterns of Adoption of Tort Law Innovations.”American Political Science Review75: 975–987.
12.
CareyJames T.1975. Sociology and Public Affairs: The Chicago School. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
13.
Center for Democratic Renewal. 1992. When Hate Groups Come to Town. Montgomery, AL: The Black Belt Press.
14.
ChamblissWilliamSeidmanRobert1982. Law, Order, and Power. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
15.
CrutchfieldRobert D.GeerkenMichael R.GoveWalter R.1982. “Crime Rate and Social Integration: The Impact of Metropolitan Mobility. Criminology20: 467–478.
16.
DawsonRichardRobinsonJames1963. “Inter-Party Competition, Economic Variables, and Welfare Policies in the American States.”Journal of Politics25: 265–289.
17.
DiMaggioPaul J.PowellWalter1983. “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields.”American Sociological Review48: 147–160.
18.
DurkheimEmile1933. The Division of Labor in Society. New York: Free Press.
19.
DyeThomas1966. Politics, Economics, and the Public. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally.
20.
ElazarDaniel1966. American Federalism: A View from the States. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Comapany.
21.
EriksonKai1966. Wayward Puritans: A Study in the Sociology of Deviance. New York: Wiley.
22.
FennPeterMcNeilTaylor1987. The Response of the Criminal Justice System to Bias Crime: An Exploratory Review. Washington, DC: Abt. Associates.
23.
FernandezJoseph1991. “Bringing Hate Crimes into Focus.”Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review26: 261–292.
24.
FilerJohn E.MoakDonal L.UzeBarry1988. “Why Some States Adopt Lotteries and Others Don't.”Public Finance Quarterly16: 259–283.
25.
FoxJohn1991. Regression Diagnostics: An Introduction. Sage University Paper Series on Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
26.
GrayVirgina1973. “Innovation in the States: A Diffusion Study.”American Political Science Review67: 1174–1185.
27.
GusfieldJoseph R.1963. Symbolic Crusade. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
28.
HaganJohn1980. “The Legislation of Crime and Delinquency: A Review of Theory, Method, and Research.”Law and Society Review14: 603–628.
29.
HernandezTanya Kateri1990. “Bias Crimes: Unconscious Racism in the Prosecution of “Racially Motivated Violence'.”The Yale Law Journal99: 832–864.
30.
HollingerRichard C.Lanza-KaduceLonn1988. “The Process of Criminalization: The Case of Computer Crime Laws.”Criminology26(1): 108–126.
31.
HumphriesDrewGreenbergDavid F.1981. “The Dialectics of Crime Control.” Pp. 209–254 in Crime and Capitalism, edited by GreenbergDavid F.Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield.
32.
JanowitzMorris1978. The Last Half Century: Societal Change and Politics in America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
33.
JennessValerie1995a. “Hate Crimes in the United States: The Transformation of Injured Persons into Victims and the Extension of Victim Status to Multiple Constituencies.” Pp. 213–237 in Images and Issues: Typifying Contemporary Social Problems, edited by BestJoelNew York: Aldine de Gruyter.
34.
JennessValerie1995b. “Social Movement Growth, Domain Expansion, and Framing Processes: The Gay/Lesbian Movement and Violence Against Gays and Lesbians as a Social Problem.”Social Problems47: 145–170.
35.
JennessValerieBroadKendal1994. “Anti-Violence Activism and the (In)Visibility of Gender in the Gay/Lesbian Movement and the Women's Movement.”Gender & Society8: 402–423.
36.
JewellMalcom E.PattersonSamuel C.1966. The Legislative Process in the United States. New York: Random House.
37.
KellyRobert J. (ed.). 1993. Bias Crime: American Law Enforcement and Legal Responses. Chicago, IL: Office of International Criminal Justice/The University of Illinois.
38.
LeeVirginia NiaFernandezJoseph M.1990. “Legislative Responses to Hate-Motivated Violence: The Massachusetts Experience and Beyond.”Harvard Civil Rights—Civil Liberties Law Review25: 287–340.
39.
LevinJackMcDevittJack1993. Hate Crimes: The Rising Tide of Bigotry and Bloodshed. New York: Plenum.
40.
LutzJames. M.1986. “The Spatial and Temporal Diffusion of Selected Liscensing Laws in the Unites States.”Political Geography Quarterly5: 141–159.
41.
Mazur-HartHelen L.1982. “Racial and Religious Intimidation: An Analysis of Oregon's 1981 Law.”Willamette Law Review18: 197–218.
42.
McGarrellEdmund F.CastellanoThomas C.1994. “Social Structure, Crime, and Politics: A Conflict Model of Criminal Law Formation Process.” Pp. 347–378 in Making Law: The State, the Law, and Structural Contradictions, edited by ChamblissWilliam J.ZatzMarjorie S.Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
43.
MeyerJohn W.RowanBrian1977. “Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony.”American Journal of Sociology83: 340–363.
44.
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. 1991. Anti-Gay/Lesbian Violence, Victimization & Defamation in 1990. Washington, DC: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute.
45.
National Institute Against Predjudice and Violence. 1991. “Striking Back at Bigotry: Remedies Under Federal and State Law for Violence Motivated by Racial, Religious, or Ethnic Prejudice.”Baltimore, MD: National Institute Against Predjudice and Violence.
46.
“Survey Shows Less Violence Against Gays.”1994. New York Times. (March 19): A7.
47.
NiceDavid1986. “State Support for Constitutional Balanced Budget Requirements.”Journal of Politics48: 134–142.
48.
NiceDavid1985. “State Party Ideology and Policymaking.”Policy Studies Journal27: 780–796.
49.
NiceDavidCohenJeffrey1982. “Ideological Consistency Among State party Delegates to the U. S. House, Senate, and National Conventions.”Social Science Quarterly64: 871–879.
50.
NichollsLeland L.1976. “Tourism and Crime.”Annals of Tourism Research3: 176–182.
ParkRobert E.BurgessErnest W.1921. Introduction to the Science of Sociology. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
53.
PindyckRobert S.RubinfeldDaniel1981. Econometric Models & Economic Forecasting. New York: McGraw-Hill.
54.
RafterNicole H.1990. “The Social Construction of Crime and Crime Control.”Journal of Research on Crime and Delinquency27: 376–389.
55.
SampsonRobert J.1987. “Communities and Crime.” Pp. 91–114 in Positive Criminology, edited by GottfredsonMichaelHirschiTravisBeverly Hills, CA: Sage.
56.
ShawClifford R.McKayHenry D.1942. Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
57.
SkocpolTheda1985. “Bringing the State Back In: Strategies of Analysis in Current Research.” Pp. 3–43 in Bringing the State Back In, edited by EvansP. B.RueschemeyerD.SkocpolT.New York: Cambridge University Press.
58.
SkocpolThedaAmentaEdwin1986. “States and Social Policies.”Annual Review of Sociology12: 131–157.
59.
StackSteven1987. “Publicized Executions and Homicide, 1950–1980.”American Sociological Review52: 532–540.
60.
SuttonJohn R.1991. “The Political Economy of Madness: The Expansion of the Asylum in Progressive America.”American Sociological Review51: 273–286.
61.
SwansonAlan H.1960. “Sexual Psychopath Statutes: Summary and Analysis.”Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science40: 215–228.
62.
SwidlerAnn1986. “Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies.”American Sociological Review51: 665–678.
63.
ThomasGeorge M.MeyerJohnRamirezFranciscoBoliJohn1987. Institutional Structure: Constituting State, Society, and the Individual. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
64.
ThomasWilliam I.ZnanieckiFlorian1927. The Polish Peasant in Europe and America, Vols. I and II. New York: Knopf.
65.
TolbertPamelaZuckerLynne G.1983. “Institutional Sources of Change in the Formal Structure of Organizations: The Diffusion of Civil Service Reform, 1880–1935.”Administrative Science Quarterly28: 22–39.
66.
TumaNancyHannanMichael T.GroeneveldLyle1979. “Dynamic Analysis of Event History.”American Journal of Sociology84: 820–854.
67.
United States, Bureau of the Census. 1991. State and Metropolitan Area Data Book. Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office.
68.
United States, Department of Justice. 1993. Report on Hate Crimes in the United States. Washington, DC: Federal Bureau of Investigation.
69.
United States Congress. 1992. H. R. 4797. 102d Congress, 2d Session.
70.
WalkerJack1969. “The Diffusion of Innovations Among American States.”American Political Science Review63: 880–899.
71.
WilsonWilliam J.1978. The Declining Significance of Race: Blacks and Changing American Institutions. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
72.
WrightGerald C.Jr.EriksonRobert S.McIverJohn P.1985. “Measuring State Partisanship and Ideology with Survey Data.”Journal of Politics47: 469–489.
73.
YamaguchiKazuo1991. Event History Analysis. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
