Sexual orientation in state hate crime laws: The interplay of social construction and public policy

Hate crimes are an identified social problem caused by bias and prejudice against certain social groups and societal responses to them are important to understand because of the unique damage that bias-motivated crimes cause to victims and communities. Previous studies identified factors involved with the diffusion and differentiation of state hate crime laws. The timing of legal adoption and the strength of interest groups have been identified as key variables that determine the form and content of state hate crime laws, but studies to date have failed to fully explain the wide variation of bias categories. The addition of sexual orientation as a bias category is a specific area of concern because crimes against gays and lesbians often are more violent than other hate crimes and are sometimes committed by law enforcement personnel. Only 30 of the 45 states that specifically criminalize hate or bias-motivated violence include sexual orientation as a protected category. This dissertation explores the social construction of gays and lesbians in a sample of six states in order to help explain the differentiation in state hate crime laws. Gays and lesbians continue to be viewed as deviant, which often prevents them from gaining hate crime protections. Furthermore, existing research fails to address the impact of hate crime laws on included social groups. Thus, two research questions are asked: 1) Is the social construction of gays and lesbians related to the inclusion or exclusion of sexual orientation as a bias category in state hate crime law? 2) Does the addition of sexual orientation to a state hate crime law impact the social construction of gays and lesbians in that state? Data are drawn from a sample of 12 daily newspapers. Content analysis determines the social construction of gays and lesbians in each state. Categorical and time series analyses are used to test the hypotheses. Results indicate that a positive dependent construction is associated with target groups included in state hate crime protections and that inclusion fails to have a positive impact upon their construction. One implication is that additional hate crime laws and bias categories may be unnecessary.