Understanding the context for police avoidance: the impact of sexual identity, police legitimacy and legal cynicism on willingness to report hate crime

Developed over decades, a body of research identifies the factors that affect people’s willingness to report crime to law enforcement. In a context in which studies of anti-LGBTQ violence and peoples’ responses to such victimisation are proliferating, a timely question warrants attention: What predicts the willingness of sexual minorities (SMs) (ie, lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer) to report hate crime to the police? Utilising original data collected from a multi-site survey, this article assesses factors that shape the probability that young SMs will report bias-motivated crime victimisation to the police. We find that, compared to their non-SM heterosexual counterparts, SMs express a wider range of willingness to report crime as well as more legal cynicism and lower perceptions of police legitimacy. Our multivariate analyses reveal that SM identity indirectly influences reporting behaviour vis-a-vis legal cynicism and perceptions of police legitimacy. The implications of these findings for future research are discussed in the context of a growing body of literature that reveals the plethora of ways in which LGBTQ communities are both over-policed and underserved.