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33 Criminology 303 (1995)
A Cross-Burning is not Just an Arson: Police Social Construction of Hate Crimes in Baltimore County

handle is hein.journals/crim33 and id is 313 raw text is: A CROSS-BURNING IS NOT JUST AN ARSON: POLICE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF HATE CRIMES IN BALTIMORE COUNTY* SUSAN E. MARTIN Chevy Chase, Maryland Growing public concern over racial and ethnic conflict and a per- ceived increase in hate crimes during the 1980s have led to legislation expanding the scope of the law and the severity of punishment for such offenses and to police-initiated efforts to focus attention on hate crimes. Although a number of critiques have examined the legislative approach, little attention has been devoted to the police response. This article examines the rationale for a police initiative in addressing hate crimes; the characteristics of incidents labeled as such in one jurisdic- tion, Baltimore County, Maryland; and some of the problems in defin- ing, identifying, and verifying bias motivation. Because about 40% of the offenses initially considered by the Baltimore County Police Department to be motivated by racial, religious, or ethnic (RRE) preju- dice subsequently are not verified as RRE motivated, a closer examina- tion of all such cases permits insight into the social construction of bias motivation and related issues raised by a police hate-crime pro- gram. These include determining what forms of bias are eligible for special responses; identifying bias motivation; weighing the victim's perception of the event; determining the line between criminal and non- criminal incidents; and adopting consistent standards for verifying ambiguous events. During the 1980s, media reports of growing numbers of hate-motivated offenses stimulated almost all states to adopt statutes related to hate crime. Some prohibit behaviors such as ethnic and religious intimida- tion (Anti-Defamation League, 1988a); others permit an increase in the level of a crime or enhanced penalties when bias motivation is present (Finn and McNeil, 1988; Gerstenfeld, 1992; Jenness and Grattet, 1993; * This article is based on work supported by grant no. 90-IJ-CX-0002 from the National Institute of Justice. Tabular data are drawn from James Garofalo and Susan E. Martin, Bias-Motivated Crimes: Their Characteristics and the Law Enforcement Response, Final Report, January 1993. The points of view or opinions in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. An earlier version of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the Law and Society Association, Berkeley, Calif., May 31, 1990. CRIMINOLOGY VOLUME 33 NUMBER 3 1995

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