Are Asian Victims Less Likely to Report Hate Crime Victimization to the Police? Implications for Research and Policy in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Anti-Asian hate crimes have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, no research has considered whether crime reporting patterns are different among Asian hate crime victims, relative to other victims. Following this, this research presents an examination of differences in reporting victimization to the police between Asian and non-Asian victims using information from 997 respondents who experienced a hate crime in the first 1 to 2 months of the pandemic. Results indicate that Asian victims are significantly and substantially less likely to report victimization to the police than other victims. Taken together, these results suggest that current estimates of increases in anti-Asian hate crime based on official crime statistics—although high—may actually be an under-estimation of the true extent of the problem.