Hate Crimes Hurt More, but so Do Co-Offenders: Separating the Influence of Co-Offending and Bias on Hate-Motivated Physical Injury

Abstract

One of the primary motivations for hate crime laws is that hate crimes “hurt more.” But hate crimes are often committed by groups, and research indicates that crimes committed by groups are also more violent than other crimes. This research focuses on one type of harm, physical injury, asking, are hate crimes more violent because they involve co-offenders or because of the bias motivation behind the incident? Results using data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) indicate that hate crimes are positively associated with serious injury, but that this association is partially driven by co-offenders. More importantly, co-offending moderates this relationship: Incidents involving bias and co-offending are especially violent. Anti-sexual orientation incidents were an exception to this pattern, however, and are likely to be violent regardless of co-offending. These results suggest that hate crimes do hurt more, but that this relationship is partially attributable to the influence of co-offenders.

Co-Offending and Arrest: An Examination of the “Group Hazard” Hypothesis

“…First, although useful, an examination of heterogeneity in arrest risk for all offenses in the NIBRS data would be beyond the scope of a single analysis. Because recent research has suggested that co-offending may be especially consequential in the production of violence (e.g., Lantz, 2018; Lantz & Kim, 2018; McGloin & Piquero, 2009), this research focuses on violent offenses as a starting point. Second, because the victim does not necessarily encounter the offender during property crimes, information regarding offender demographics—one of the primary foci of this research—are considerably more reliable for violent crimes.…”

Co-offending Group Composition and Violence: The Impact of Sex, Age, and Group Size on Co-offending Violence

“…Recent research on co-offending as collective behavior argues that the presence of co-offenders allows individuals to engage in behavior that they would never have engaged in had they been alone (Lantz, 2018; Lantz & Kim, 2019; McGloin & Piquero, 2009; Warr, 2002). More specifically, this research argues that being in the presence of other offenders changes the threshold for certain behaviors through various mechanisms, including the diffusion of responsibility among group members (Granovetter, 1978; McGloin & Rowan, 2015).…”

“…Using descriptive data in Canada, Carrington (2002) found that groups were more likely than solo offenders to commit more serious crimes, and that a higher percentage of crimes resulting in injury involved co-offenders, rather than a single offender. More recently, Lantz (2018) examined injury likelihood in a multivariate framework and found that incidents committed by groups were more likely to involve serious injury, and that the likelihood of serious injury increased as the size of a co-offending group increased (see also Lantz & Kim, 2019).…”

Hate Crime Victimization and Weapon Use

“…Prior research has consistently demonstrated hate crimes to be quantitatively and qualitatively more severe (i.e., violent) than other types of nonbias crimes (Harlow, 2005;Lantz & Kim, 2019;B. Levin, 1999;J.…”

“…toward the characteristics of the victim (i.e., race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability, etc. ), are more severe than other crimes; in other words, hate crimes "hurt more" (Iganski, 2001;Lantz & Kim, 2019). In general, scholars have pointed to three ways in which hate crimes hurt more than other crimes.…”