Many law enforcement agencies underreport hate crimes against some vulnerable communities, despite rising bias-related victimizations.

Hate crimes are acts of violence motivated by prejudice against victims’ identities or characteristics, instilling fear across entire communities. Despite federal and state laws requiring documentation of bias-motivated crimes, these incidents remain vastly underreported, creating a “dark figure” that obscures the true scope of the problem. National data show that bias-related victimizations have risen over the past decade, yet official crime statistics capture only a fraction. This gap undermines efforts to ensure accountability, allocate resources, and protect vulnerable communities.

NORC, funded by the National Institute of Justice, is examining the drivers of hate crime underreporting—both by affected communities and law enforcement—and designing strategies to improve reporting and classification. Social and institutional factors such as trust in policing, agency protocols, and officer training shape these decisions. By identifying barriers and developing evidence-based tools, this project advances NORC’s mission to strengthen justice systems and promote public safety.

NORC is using a mixed-methods, research-to-translation approach to understand barriers and facilitators to hate crime reporting.

NORC addressed the challenge of chronic underreporting of hate crimes by designing a three-stage, mixed-methods research-to-translation project, entitled Hate Incident Reporting Initiative to Strengthen Engagement in Communities (HIRISE+), that integrates community perspectives with law enforcement practices. A key challenge was bridging the trust gap between affected communities and police agencies while generating actionable insights for policy. To meet this challenge, NORC partnered with the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) and four diverse police departments across the United States, ensuring both geographic and cultural representation.

Stage 1 mapped local contexts through a large-scale web survey and an environmental scan of departmental policies and procedures. Stage 2 used in-depth interviews with victims and law enforcement to uncover decision-making processes behind reporting and classification. Stage 3 translated these findings into evidence-based tools and recommendations for police agencies. This approach demonstrates NORC’s strength in combining rigorous research design with community partner engagement to produce practical solutions that advance justice and public safety.