Evaluating the Integration of Hate Crime Law into Police Practice

• In Event: Poster Session I

Abstract

This study conducted an evaluation into the state of hate crime policy implementation and the content of hate crime policies at the police agency level in the state of Maryland. This was only the second such study to provide a comprehensive look at the state of hate crime policy implementation following a similar study in California. Twenty-five agencies, all county level police agencies, along with Baltimore City Police Department and the Maryland State Police were contacted with an end sample of 23 agencies. Forty-three percent of agencies included in the study did not have hate crime policy. Having a hate crime policy was correlated with increased agency size, population size for the jurisdiction, and a high percentage of voters registered as Democrat. Having a hate crime policy was also related to higher levels of reporting. For the 13 agencies that did have written policies, a content analysis was conducted over nine policy areas which found variation in which content areas the written policies covered but large levels of coverage for most policy areas overall.

Author

• William Dean Johnson, George Mason University