Factors Associated With Reporting Hate Crime to Police in the NCVS

• In Event: Measuring Hate Crime Victimization

Abstract

Since 2003, the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) has collected self-report data on hate crime victimization from a nationally representative sample of US residents. NCVS data reveal substantial differences in the incidence of self-reported violent hate crime compared to official police statistics on hate crime recorded through the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports (UCR). The largest contributor to these differences is that the majority of violent hate crimes go unreported to police. These unreported hate crimes have implications for criminal justice and public policy related to the risk and nature of hate crime victimization, as well as law enforcement understanding of when a hate crime has occurred. The presentation examines the demographic and incident characteristics associated with a failure to report violent hate crime victimizations to police, including age, gender, and race, severity of the victimization, presence of a third-party, number and characteristics of offenders, and bias motivation.

Author

• Lynn Langton, Bureau of Justice Statistics