Reporting behavior in the context of hate crime victimization. The role of trust in and discrimination experiences by the police within mechanisms influencing reporting behavior.

• In Event: Hate crime victimisation

Abstract

Hate crimes or prejudice-related acts are motivated by the ideology of inequality between different population groups. Victims often feel particularly powerless due to the fact that they cannot change the characteristics that motivated the attack. This feeling of powerlessness is typically accompanied by particularly low reporting rates. Accordingly, in Germany, as well as in other European countries, a very high number of unreported cases must be assumed in this field ranging between 50% and 90%, (e.g., Church & Coester, 2021; Fröhlich, 2021; Groß, Häfele & Peter 2024). According to Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the EU Directive on Victims' Rights, member states are obliged to make prejudiced actions visible and comprehensively document them statistically. Thus, the high level of under-reporting of hate crime victims is a serious problem not only for society in general, but also for the police in particular, as they are responsible for protecting all citizens.
Building on existing research on hate crime victimization and reporting behavior, this study empirically examines the role of trust in police and experiences of discrimination in contact with the police within the social mechanisms that influence reporting behavior.
The analyses are based on the Hate Town project, which aims to record how different minority groups are affected by prejudice-based victimization. The data basis consists of n = 4577 individuals from N = 96 districts in Hamburg (Germany).

Authors

• Eva Maria Groß, Hochschule Polizei Hamburg

• Joachim Häfele, Police Academy of Lower Saxony/Institute for Crime and Security Research

• Armin Küchler, Bielefeld University/ FH Münster