CHAPTER 4
 RESULTS

 The primary focus of this study was to determine whether group membership

influenced law enforcement officer agreement to categorize a crime as a bias crime and to

determine what factors influenced their decision. The study utilized a sample of 184

certified law enforcement officers LEOs. The following research questions were

addressed:

1. Research Question One: Does law enforcement officer level of agreement with
 hate crime classification vary across protected category?

2. Research Question Two: Does law enforcement officer mean level of agreement
 with hate crime classification vary by gender?

3. Research Question Three: Is there an interaction between protected category and
 gender on law enforcement officer mean level of agreement with hate crime
 classification?

4. Research Question Four: Does age, attitudes towards persons with disabilities,
 and contact with persons with disabilities provide predictive ability for law
 enforcement officers' agreement with hate crime enhancement for persons with
 disabilities?

 The first three questions were answered by conducting a two-way (repeated

measure) ANOVA and a series of one-way ANOVA's as post-hoc analyses. Protected

category and gender were included in the ANOVA model to answer questions 1 and 2

while the interaction term in the model was used to answer question 3. Question 4 was

answered by modeling the MHCS disability sub-scale score as a function of the CDP

score, ATDP-A score, and age of LEO.