Date of Graduation

8-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Sociology (MA)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Sociology and Criminology

Advisor/Mentor

Gruenewald, Jeffrey A.

Committee Member

Harris, Casey T.

Second Committee Member

Allison, Kayla

Keywords

Attribution Theory; Biased Crime; Bounded Rationality; Focal Concerns Theory; Hate Crime; Open-source

Abstract

While most states in America have passed laws permitting harsher punishments for those convicted of hate (or bias) crimes, there has been no research to date on the adjudication of these defendants, including how legal and extralegal attributes of bias crime shape prosecutorial and judicial decision-making. This gap in research is likely due in part to the limitations of official data on bias crimes. Fortunately, new data on legal outcomes for bias homicide offenders who target victims because of their race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or homed status have become available from the open-source database known as the Bias Homicide Database (BHDB). Drawing from the BHDB and theoretical perspectives on court-actor decision-making, the current study quantitatively investigates the relationships between victim attributes and the severity of case dispositions in bias-motivated homicide cases. Findings suggest that victim attributes are significantly related to justice outcomes. This study sheds light on how bias crime defendants are adjudicated in American courts with implications for broader debates regarding the social value and legal utility of enhanced punishments for those convicted of crimes targeting persons because of their social group.

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