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Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services
Sample Directives - Policy in Action
Guidance On Hate Or Bias Crimes - July 2000 Identify
and apprehend offenders, if present. In interviewing suspects, record
the precise words of any suspects. Restore
order. Obtain
medical assistance for the injured, if any. Protect
the crime scene. Collect and photograph relevant evidence. Evidence
peculiar to hate crimes may include hate literature, threatening letters,
spray paint cans, symbolic paraphernalia (such as Nazi uniform insignia). Obtain
a translator if necessary. At the
scene, neither confirm nor deny that a hate or bias crime or terrorist
incident has occurred. Summon
a supervisor. Supervisory responsibilities include coordinating with
nearby agencies, assisting in canvassing the neighborhood for additional
witnesses, coordinating the reporting of the incident by multiple responding
officers. In the case of vandalism, the supervisor might help the property
owner in eradicating graffiti or other traces of the crime following
crime-scene processing for evidence. If this is not possible, the supervisor
or follow-up investigator might contact the appropriate property owner
to remove graffiti. Interview
victims by one officer or investigator only; avoid having victims tell
their accounts repeatedly. The victim or victims may display shock,
anger, desire revenge, or experience shame. Let the victim tell the
story in his or her own words. Victims may defer answering questions
if they appear too upset. Ask the victim why he or she believes that
the crime occurred. Ensure
the anonymity of the victims or complainants whenever possible. Candidly
discuss the possibility of media coverage and its ramifications. Link the
victim to appropriate regional helping agencies. Instruct
the victim on what may happen during a subsequent investigation and
prosecution. Be cautious
about making any assumptions about the victim's culture, lifestyle,
values, or behavior, and particularly do not criticize or belittle the
victim's behavior, choices, or culture. The perception
of the victim and witnesses that hate or bias provided the motivation
to commit a crime, or a confession by the offender that hate motivated
him or her. A pattern
of similar incidents in the same community, involving the same victims. The offender
and victim belong to groups opposed to one another for various ideological
reasons. The manner
and means of any violent attack. The victim
or other members of a group associated with the victim recently demonstrated
or opposed another group known to espouse hate doctrine, such as the
Ku Klux Klan or the American Nazi Party. The obstruction
of the victim by force from freely exercising a constitutionally-guaranteed
freedom. Vandalism
or destruction of property owned or used by a religious institution,
ethnic group, or other special-interest group. The victim
may have been involved in an activity at the time of the offense that
identifies him or her with an ethnic or religious group, or with any
other group. The offender’s
perception of difference between him- or herself and the victim. The crime
occurred on a date corresponding with an anniversary of some event,
or a holiday or event of significance to the offender or the victim. The offender’s
personality, pursuits, and beliefs which demonstrate hate or bias, particularly
any symbols or graffiti associated with the offender. International
Association of Chiefs of Police www.theiacp.org U.S. Department
of Justice/Bureau of Justice Assistance www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bja
Community
Relations Service, U.S. Department of Justice www.usdoj.gov/crs/
Office
for Victims of Crime/U.S. Department of Justice www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc
Background
In the 1980s, major law-enforcement executive associations recommended that
police and sheriffs’ agencies develop written guidance on responding
to instances of racial violence. Within the last ten years, instances of
violence against United States citizens throughout the world have forced
a broadening of this concern. The term hate or bias crime has evolved to
focus attention on the motivations behind familiar offenses of assault,
robbery, kidnapping, or murder. These offenses with their motivations of
hatred may involve multiple victims, too: this observation has led some
law-enforcement executives to consider that the definition of hate or bias
crime should include acts of terrorism, that is, crimes “motivated
by a hatred of people, not because of their race, national origin, sex,
sexual preference, and religion but because of their affiliations or occupation”
(from A Policymaker's Guide to Hate Crimes, Bureau of Justice Assistance
monograph NCJ 162304, March, 1997, p. 25).
Law-enforcement executives must anticipate that hate-motivated crimes will
occur within their jurisdictions. While the motivation does not alter the
offense that has been committed--robbery is still robbery--a law-enforcement
agency must consider the crime's impact on a larger community of people
against whom the hate has been directed. Further, Virginia law requires
local law-enforcement agencies to report “terroristic acts” to
the Department of State Police (defined under Code
of Virginia 52-8.5), which includes criminal acts “with the specific intent
of instilling fear or intimidation in the individual” because of ethnic
background, or because the acts prevent or restrain a person from exercising
his or her legal rights. The State Police provides a form for the purpose.
A comprehensive directive on hate crimes:
Analyzing the
hate motivation behind crimes is necessary for intelligence-gathering purposes,
but also serves community-oriented policing purposes and crime prevention.
The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) has
outlined the responsibilities of the chief law-enforcement executive to
include the following:
Provide leadership by developing a strong policy statement and disseminating
it to all officers and the public at large.
(From:
Racial and Religious Violence: A Law Enforcement Guidebook, by Elsie
L. Scott, Arlene E. Williams, NOBLE, March, 1986)
Develop a directive which defines a racially or religiously targeted incident
and outlines procedures for responding to such incidents.
Ensure that all sworn personnel receive human relations training and that
investigators receive specialized training.
Ensure that an appropriate response is given to all serious incidents
and that follow-up investigation is carried out.
Defining Hate Offenses
The most important feature of a directive on hate offenses is the definition
of the term. Officers must be able to understand and apply the definition.
A new publication of the International Association of Chiefs of Police defines
a hate crime as:
A
criminal offense committed against persons, property or society that is
motivated, in whole or in part, by an offender's bias against an individual’s
or a group’s perceived race, religion, ethnic/national origin, gender,
age, disability or sexual orientation. [From Responding to Hate Crimes:
A Police Officer's Guide to Investigation and Prevention, IACP, 2000]
The 1991 Model
Policy of the National Law Enforcement Policy Center, IACP, promoted a broader
definition:
Any
unlawful action designed to frighten, harm, injure, intimidate or harass
an individual, in whole or in part because of a bias motivation against
the actual or perceived race, religion, ethnic background or sexual orientation
of the victim.
The Model Policy
also provides definitions of race, ethnic group, religious group, and orientation,
and states that as a matter of department policy or philosophy any possible
hate offense will be accorded a high priority, and that “particular
attention shall be given to addressing the security and related concerns
of the immediate victims as well as their families and others affected by
the crime.”
The Responding Officer
Understanding the nature of hate crimes dictates an agency’s investment
of resources in solving them and supporting the affected community. After
stating an agency’s
goal in investigating hate crimes as well as the priority assigned to such
offenses, and after defining relevant terms, a directive must outline what
is expected of the responding officer. Officers should be directed to conduct
a thorough investigation, but it may not be possible for officers to spot
the bias or hate component in order to classify or flag a report as a hate
crime. Written directives must also distinguish what might be a noncriminal
hate act that requires no enforcement response: the act might be an exercise
of free speech, constitutionally protected, and therefore amount to an intelligence-gathering
exercise. Noncriminal hate incidents may be precursors to violence. Because
of the need to calm an entire community after a hate crime, responding officers
must exercise considerable tact and apply crisis-management skills.
A checklist of the responding officer’s
duties might include the following
In recognition
of the possible trauma to the victim or victims, and to the victim's community,
crisis-management procedures might include the following:
The determination
that a hate crime has occurred comes after the fact, and some agencies employ
checklists to help officers ascertain whether the crime can be categorized
as having a hate motivation. Other agencies require another officer or investigator
to retrace the first officer's inquiry to confirm the hate crime determination.
The determination that a hate crime has occurred might rely on the totality
of the following circumstances:
The role of
the dispatcher should not be overlooked in handling a possible hate-motivated
offense. The dispatcher may be able to apply the above checklist to information
given by a complainant in order to better provide support to responding
officers, or to call appropriate community resources for help. Any guidance
on follow-up investigation should stress collaboration with a prosecutor
to develop a case, and on maintaining contact with the victim and his or
her community to update them on the status of the matter periodically.
Other Resources
Much information exists on all aspects of hate offenses. For Internet resources,
contact the following:
The monograph cited above, A Policymaker's Guide to Hate Crimes,
can be obtained online from the Bureau of Justice Assistance web site, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA.
For a study of hate offenses in Virginia, see Hate Crimes, House
Document No. 63 of the Virginia General Assembly, a report of the Virginia
State Crime Commission, 1998.
To comment on the Policy In Action topics or to request further information, send an e-mail to
Tim Paul.
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