| This research examines police and prosecutorial responses to hate crime in the United States to investigate how the state responds to inter-group conflict and to better understand how legal environments impact law enforcement actions. The theoretical framework for this research links theories of government social control, which draw attention to the demographic and political correlates of punishment, with neo-institutional arguments concerning organizations and law. Further, I demonstrate how a specific facet of culture, collective memory, impacts law enforcement responses to hate crime. Consistent with these theoretical perspectives, analyses of two law enforcement surveys and interviews with district attorneys in four jurisdictions suggest several facets of communities and law enforcement agencies are associated with hate crime law enforcement. In contrast to much prior work finding greater use of criminal sanctions in racially heterogeneous and politically conservative jurisdictions, the present research suggests less vigorous enforcement of hate crime law in areas with larger black populations and in conservative strongholds. This association between politics and hate crime law enforcement is partly attributable to differences in the bureaucratic organization of law enforcement agencies and the presence of hate crime law advocates in these communities. Moreover, police departments and district attorneys' offices with greater community engagement, for instance through community policing and prosecution, are more likely to implement and enforce hate crime policies, and this degree of state-society interaction conditions the impact of race on law enforcement outcomes. Finally, districts that commemorate eras of gross inequity and violence, such as the Holocaust, and places with sizeable "carrier group" populations supportive of hate crime law are more apt to implement and enforce hate crime policies. The findings not only shed light on the efficacy of hate crimes legislation in the United States, but also have implications for debates concerning community oriented law enforcement, race and the administration of justice, and the impact of politics and culture on criminal punishment. |
