Preventing Hate Crime and Profiling Hate Crime Offenders.

Introduction Because of its continued occurrence, in 1990 President George W. Bush signed into law the Hate Crime Statistics Act. The Act was amended by the Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. According to this law, all hate crimes must be reported and compiled along with other Type I Index crimes. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program has worked to establish a nationwide system for collecting statistics on bias-motivated criminal incidents. Hate or bias crimes are defined by Congress as actions where the defendant's conduct was motivated by hatred, bias, or prejudice directed toward an individual or group solely because of his or her perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation (Schmalleger, 1992). Moreover, other victims of hate crime can also be Whites who are associated with or sympathetic to any of those in this protected class. Others that have recently been added to this group include women and those who are disabled. Crimes against them are included in this category of crime when they are perpetrated solely because of the person's gender or disability. Despite this, the latter groups will not be included in this paper. In 1996, police reported that the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) indicated that 8,759 hate crimes occurred (U.S. Department of Justice, 1997). Further, in 1997, the UCR reported that over 11,211 law enforcement agencies (in 48 states and the District of Columbia) were beginning to realize the seriousness of compiling these statistics on bias crimes. Though nearly 17,000 police agencies participate in the collection of index crime data, the UCR reports that the number of policing agencies reporting bias crimes has grown in recent years (U.S. Department of Justice, 1998). While it is very difficult to assess the actual numbers of hate crimes that occur each year without the full participation of the law enforcement community, reports indicate that many agencies are creating programs designed to train officers to recognize and report these crimes. While there have been several articles written on hate crimes, these works have been published to describe and discuss hate and the crime that has revolved around hate. Some of these articles include Freeman and Brith's (1994) discussion of hate and the law; Israel (1992) and Herek and Berrill's (1992) work on hate crimes and gays and lesbians; Wolfe's (1928) thesis of hate as a crime of passion; Levin and McDevitt's (1993) examination of the rising tide of bigotry and violence; Lawrence's (1999) discussion on punishing hate; Jacobs and Potter's (1998) investigation of hate crimes and identity politics; D'Angelo's (1998) study of hate and the psychology of offenders; and Jenness and Kendel's (1997) study of hate and social movements. Though these articles focus on hate and related crime, this article addresses a neglected area of hate crime research--collecting accurate hate crime statistics, profiling, and preventions. As such, this paper is divided into four parts. Part One provides hate crime statistics for 1996 through 1998. Part Two presents theories on the causes and spread of hate. Part Three argues that a general profile of offenders can be constructed, and Part Four discusses prevention strategies. In the final analysis, the authors contend that hate crimes can be reduced. Part One : Hate Crime Statistics (1996-98) Hate crime groups have grown drastically in recent years. Traditionally, when one thought of a hate group, images of the Ku Klux Klan emerged along with cross burnings and figures of people wearing white robes. However, the reality is that the Klan is on decline and other hate groups are now on the rise. Today, some separatists feel that the old Klan is a dinosaur, not aggressive and technical enough in its approach of asserting dominance and power. This view has led to the formation of other divisions of hate groups. …