To Charge or not to Charge?-That is the question: The pursuit of Strategic Advantage in Prosecutional Decision-Making Surrounding Hate Crime

Abstract

We asked prosecutors how they think about hate crimes and which factors do and do not influence their decision-making processes when deciding whether to charge a hate crime (add a hate crime enhancement). Our empirical findings along these line provide the first glimpse of the dynamics that underlie the prosecution of hate crime.

Keywords

• prosecution
• hate crime
• law
• civil rights