Racial disparities in hate crime reporting.

This study examines the influence of the victim's race in reporting hate crimes to the police. Data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) concentrated incident-level files (1992-2005) were used to (a) analyze how the victim's race influences the likelihood of reporting and (b) explore differences between reporting racial hate crimes and non-racial hate crimes. Controlling for other demographic and incident characteristics, the results indicate that minority victimizations are less likely to be reported for both racial and nonracial hate crimes; however, the magnitude of this effect was greater for racial hate crimes. Failure to report to the police has serious consequences for the victim and the criminal justice system. Implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.