Research Summary The police have a duty to provide assistance to crime victims. Despite the importance of this role, scholars examining police effectiveness have historically been less attentive to the needs of victims. As the police are increasingly called on to combat sex and labor trafficking crimes, it is timely to explore how this new population of victims is served by the police. Information from a review of human trafficking investigations and in‐depth interviews with police and service providers in three U.S. communities indicates that human trafficking victims often do not trust the police and rarely seek their assistance. When the police do respond, human trafficking victims seek affirmation of their experiences and safety from future harm. Policy Implications Recommendations are offered to improve police responses to human trafficking victims including efforts to build trust, promote victim safety, and meet the needs of victims outside of the justice system.

Traditionally, the literature has sought to understand the impact of racial minority status and trauma as it relates to interpersonal violence, domestic violence, and sexual assault. What has not been as extensively reviewed and summarized is how racially or ethnically motivated hate crimes impact the mental health of minorities—particularly Latinx/Hispanic groups. This review aims to summarize the current body of literature on the intersection of race-motivated hate crime and trauma responses within Latinx community. To do so, the theoretical foundation for this inquiry will build from a race-based trauma perspective. Specifically, this review connects existing frameworks for race and trauma and integrates literature that examines Latinx or Hispanic populations that have experienced discrimination, bias, or hate crime as a result of their identity or perceived identity. The importance of situating bias or hate events within the trauma literature stems from a lack of overall formal evaluation of these events, and how these occurrences are historically overlooked as a traumatic stressor. The findings of this review suggest that (1) experiencing racially motivated victimization can cause adverse mental and physical health outcomes in Latinxs and (2) currently, there is only one study that has examined the impact of hate crime on Latinxs in the United States. This leaves the field with unanswered questions about the impact of hate crime victimization among Latinxs, which is an ever-growing area in need of attention.

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Objective: To contribute a more complete and accurate understanding of rates of bias victimization toward Latinxs using self-report data from a community sample. Method: Totally, 910 Latinx adults from Boston, San Diego, and Houston were recruited through partnerships with community agencies and self-selection during local Latinx-focused events through the Spring and Summer of 2018. The survey evaluated experiences with hate crime, bias victimization, and non-bias victimization in their lifetime and past year. Background demographic information including immigration and documentation status were also queried. Results: The overall lifetime bias victimization rate for respondents was 52.9%. When focusing specifically on hate crimes this percentage was 28.4%, while the noncriminal bias victimization rate was 50%. There was a significant relationship between prior to past year bias victimization and past year nonbias victimization. Inversely, prior to past year non-bias victimization was also associated with past year bias victimization. Conclusion: The results of this study illustrate the limited nature of existing data sets on hate crime that rely on officially reported incidents or national surveys. This study is also one of the first to examine co-existence with other forms of victimization.

Hate crimes, often referred to as bias-motivated crimes, have garnered greater public attention and concern as political rhetoric in the United States and internationally has promoted the exclusion of people based on their group identity. This review examines what we know about the trends in hate crime behavior and the legal responses to this problem across four main domains. First, we describe the legal framework and recent attempts to expand hate crime protections beyond historically disenfranchised groups. Second, we examine recent trends and patterns of hate crime victimization. Third, we review what is known about those who perpetrate hate crimes and those who experience hate crime victimization. Finally, we examine the efficacy of efforts to respond to and prevent hate crime. This review examines a wide range of bias-motivated harms and suggests how future research and policy can be more inclusive of victimization extending beyond traditionally understood hate crimes. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Criminology, Volume 6 is January 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Latinx adults are increasingly avoiding formal authorities, local services, and community engagement out of fear of victimization and deportation. Increased distrust and fear of authorities threaten to erode individual and community feelings of safety. While crime prevention scholarship identifies community efficacy, local engagement, and bonds to formal institutions as critical components to creating safety within local communities, there is little research to date on how avoidance in response to victimization impacts these processes. This study utilized data from 53 qualitative interviews of Latinx adults to understand the ways that bias victimization and discrimination alter feelings of community safety. Participants expressed distrust of formal institutions and decreased community engagement. They also leveraged informal networks like friends and family, emphasizing the nuanced impact of avoidance on community organization.

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Latinx adults have become increasingly vulnerable to bias motivated victimization. The impact of such incidents on Latinx communities is severely understudied, particularly concerning whether or not victims will seek help as a result of such events. Evidence within other victimization contexts demonstrate Latinx populations may be less likely to seek formal help from police, medical providers, and other formal authorities, relying instead on informal support networks such as family and friends. The current study sought to understand formal and informal help-seeking behavior among Latinx adults who experienced bias motivated victimization. The Understanding and Measuring Bias Victimization against Latinos study obtained rates of bias victimization and subsequent help-seeking behavior among Latinx adults who reported experiencing bias victimization (n = 315, 34.6% of full sample of 910). Those who experience bias victimization seek formal help at much lower rates than informal forms of support. Logistic regression analyses controlling the type of victimization demonstrated that participants who experienced a victimization constituting a hate crime were more likely to seek formal help compared to experiencing non-criminal bias events. Implications include addressing barriers to Latinx bias victims seeking forms of help, in addition to understanding the potential polyvictimization histories that predict why Latinx adults may decide to seek help.