Lost in the Static? Clearance Rates and Time to Clearance Among Anti-Hispanic Hate Crime Victims

• In Event: Ecological Variation in Hate Crime Offending, Formal Responses, and Group Threat Processes

Abstract

Despite the Hispanic population within the United States being the fastest growing minority group, crime clearance studies have largely omitted the Hispanic population as a primary comparison group. This trend is particularly true for the study of hate crime clearance as, to our knowledge, no prior work has directly analyzed whether hate crime clearance operates differently for Hispanic victims. To address this gap in the literature, the current study utilizes 20 years of NIBRS hate crime data, logistic regression, and event history analysis to begin to understand the difference in clearance and time to clearance outcomes for Hispanic victims in comparison to non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White hate crime victims. Using the theoretical frameworks of schema, group/racial threat, and power-differential theories, we predict that Hispanic victims of hate crime will experience the lowest clearance rates, and the longest time to clearance rates in comparison to non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White hate crime victims. Preliminary analysis has found some support for these hypotheses.

Authors

• Logan Faulkner, Florida State University

• Marin Wenger, Florida State University