Policing Hatred: Law Enforcement, Civil Rights, and Hate Crime

By Jeannine Bell

Explores the intersection of race and law enforcement in the controversial area of hate crime

High-profile hate crimes like the torture-murder of Matthew Shepard and the dragging death of James Byrd have drawn the nation's attention, but there are thousands of other individuals who are attacked because of their race, religion, or sexual orientation each year. This study of hate crimes challenges common assumptions regarding perpetrators and victims: most of the accused tend to be white, while most of their victims are not.

Policing Hatred is an in-depth ethnographic study of how hate crime law works in practice, from the perspective of those enforcing it. It examines the ways in which the police handle bias crimes, and the social impact of those efforts. Bell exposes the power that law enforcement personnel have to influence the social environment by showing how they determine whether an incident will be charged as a bias crime.

Drawing on her unprecedented access to a police hate crime unit, Bell's work brings to life the stories of female, Black, Latino, and Asian American detectives, in addition to those of their white male counterparts. Policing Hatred also explores the impact of victim's identity on each officers handling of bias crimes and addresses how the police treat defendants' First Amendment rights. Bell's vivid evidence from the field argues persuasively for the need to have the police diligently address even low-level offenses, such as vandalism, given their devastating cumulative effects on society.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814798985
• ISBN13: 9780814798980
• Release Date: July 2004
• Publisher: New York University Press
• Length: 227 Pages
• Weight: 0.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.4" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Scholarly but engaging

Professor Bell carefully chronicles the work of a hate crime unit in a major metropolitan area. Her work offers careful detail of the type of crimes encountered, decisions investigate and charge suspects, and even the varied outlook of different cops within the unit. At the same time, Bell keeps her narrative grounded in real cases and real injuries. The result is a detailed analysis that remains engaging and compelling, and does not sacrifice individual anecdotes for the sake of social science.

Provocative & Engaging

Policing Hatred examines the important issue of hate crimes from a new vanatage point -- the cops on the beat, whose actions and decisions will affect significantly the judicial process. Bell's study of how and why police charge crimes as hate crimes is facinating, very well-written, and accessible to anyone interested in law and political science.