Hate crime laws, on both the federal and state levels, increasingly include gender, yet the category continues to be controversial and rarely implemented. Law enforcement officials themselves view the gender category differently from other forms of bias crimes, such as those based on race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation. Why are these types of bias crimes reported more extensively than those gender-biased crimes?

Jessica P. Hodge uses extensive empirical research, including newspaper accounts, legislative histories, and interviews with criminal justice professionals and advocacy groups to investigate the creation and implementation of the gender category in New Jersey. She finds several reasons why the gender category is (or is not) included and/or implemented in particular cases. Extrapolating her findings beyond the Garden State, Hodge illuminates the challenges of developing definitive and effective gender-inclusive bias crime statutes.