Hate crimes over time (FBI numbers)

[tagryn]

I compiled this from the FBI Hate Crime statistics data in response to a friend's post stating that we're getting more violent and hateful as a nation. Here's the number of hate crime incidents per year since the FBI started collecting these stats in '95:

2008: 7,783
2007: 7,624
2006: 7,722
2005: 7,163
2004: 7,649
2003: 7,489
2002: 7,462
2001: 9,730
2000: 8,063
1999: 7,876
1998: 7,755
1997: 8,049
1996: 8,759
1995: 7.947

To me, considering we're a country of 300 million plus, the amount of hate crimes is pretty minimal: ~7500-8000 incidents each year, and that number hasn't bounced much from that range since the FBI started collecting statistics on it in '92. The outlier is the 9,730 in 2001, but that settled back down to 7,462 in 2002 and hasn't topped 7,800 since. The numbers just don't seem to bear out that we're getting more hateful and violent.

Note: this assumes the same methodology and definitions are being used from year to year.

UPDATE: Paul Becker, who I went to grad school with and knows more about these numbers than I, posted this reply in Facebook:
2001 was because of hate crimes in the aftermath of 9/11

One of the problems with hate crime stats is that every state defines them differently. In Ohio it's a 'hate crime' to call someone up and harass them on the phone because of their race or religion but it's not a hate crime to kill them for the same reasons.

Numbers are also low because there may not be the evidence needed to prove it was motivated by hate (if someone who is gay is physically assaulted, was it because of their sexual orientation or because they cut in front of someone on the highway?)

UPDATE 2: Instapundit reminds readers that there were cases of politics-related violence during the Bush years as well, particularly around the '04 election. So, nothing new about people getting worked up and having a few of them act out in extreme ways, whether its a particular issue like health care or a Presidential election. We've been down this road before, and those incidents didn't signify anything bigger down the road.

Comments

[erikred.livejournal.com]

Hi, Tom,

I don't know if this was the motivator for Jilara's post or not, but Fresh Air did a segment on Thursday with Mark Potok, director of publications and information for the Southern Poverty Law Center, whose latest Intelligence Report "documents the growth in the number of hate and extremist groups — and how their rhetoric is increasingly entering the mainstream."

In particular, Potok was pointing at increases in activity among hate and extremist groups since Obama was elected, i.e., 2009 and onward. It would be interesting to see what the numbers for 2009 look like.

Further, as has been decried by both conservatives and liberals, collecting stats on Hate Crimes can be problematic. The UCR itself mentions this on its methodology page:

The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program’s Hate Crime Statistics Program collects data regarding criminal offenses that are motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against a race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or disability and are committed against persons, property, or society. Because motivation is subjective, it is sometimes difficult to know with certainty whether a crime resulted from the offender’s bias. Moreover, the presence of bias alone does not necessarily mean that a crime can be considered a hate crime. Only when law enforcement investigation reveals sufficient evidence to lead a reasonable and prudent person to conclude that the offender’s actions were motivated, in whole or in part, by his or her bias, should an incident be reported as a hate crime.

It would be interesting to further break down the UCR's stats and see if certain political circumstances result in a) more/less crime of x type, b) more/less reporting of crime of x type, and/or c) more/less institutional bias toward the conclusion that a given incident constitutes a hate crime.

Food for thought,
Erik

[jilara.livejournal.com]

Mother Jones had a few interesting articles on the radicalization of the the conservative right, lately.

What's funny is that I was part of the original militia movement, and we were a diverse group of fairly tolerant libertarians, back then. Heck, I remember the Berkeley Militia, which was run by a black guy with a single name who wore tie-dye. Then in the mid-1990s, we started seeing scary people start to show up, guys who had axes to grind against various groups of different ethnic and political bents. And against women. (I and the lady who was head of the local Annie Oakley Society both got a lot of nastiness from some of these guys, who were highly misogynistic, to boot. Reminded me of the statement from the '60's that the only place for women in the Black Panthers was prone.) By the time the Oklahoma City bombing happened, we were all so freaked that we diverse moderates peeled off the movement and ran for the hills. Because the crazies were coming into control.

[jilara.livejournal.com]

I didn't actually say that we, as a nation, were getting more violent and hateful. I said that certain elements were, and those elements worry me. I don't understand what about the passage of the Health Care bill has provoked violent reactions and rhetoric, but the vandalism and hate speech has definitely amped up. It reminds me a lot, actually, of the radical left, back in the 1960s.

And I see myself as part of the groups a lot of these folks consider threatening. Nothing like fear to spur violent reactions. Exactly why they feel so afraid, I don't know.

[tagryn]

Paul Becker, who I went to grad school with at Bowling Green and at the time specialized in studying U.S. hate groups, posted a reply to this in Facebook that I'll copy over here shortly which goes into the issues with these stats. They're not perfect by any means, but I think they're the best we have, and much better than anecdotal evidence in terms of giving us metrics to use. The FBI stats do break it down by type, and the '01 report noted that some of the increase that year was due to religious discrimination crimes (i.e. reactions to 9/11 against Muslims) going up, but religious hate crimes went from 1,472 in 2000 up 1,828 in 2001 then down to 1,426 in '02.

I respect SPLC's work, but I don't think that report indicates a sharp spike in hate groups, either, just that hate groups are showing surprising resiliency and new ones are replacing others. I don't think this is surprising to anyone - poor economic times breed frustration, etc, so the surprise would have been if they'd suddenly started to diminish. On the other hand, considering the size of the country, they're still a tiny, tiny fraction of the populace. The situation seems to merit continued watchfulness, rather than sudden alarm and emergency measures. After Oklahoma City, I expect the FBI hasn't gone to sleep on this again.

[tagryn]

I think the SPLC report that Erik linked to put it well re: motivations:

“We are in the midst of one of the most significant right-wing populist rebellions in United States history,” Chip Berlet, a veteran analyst of the American radical right, wrote earlier this year. "We see around us a series of overlapping social and political movements populated by people [who are] angry, resentful, and full of anxiety. They are raging against the machinery of the federal bureaucracy and liberal government programs and policies including health care, reform of immigration and labor laws, abortion, and gay marriage."

...although I think the report downplays the impact the economic downturn has had, I think its a major contributing factor to this.

As a government employee, I'm in one of the target groups: the recent shooting at the Pentagon and the plane attack on the IRS building in Texas were both assaults on Federal government employees. I hope we get through the Census process (which'll start sending enumerators knocking on doors starting April 4th) without violence. At the same time I recognize these are isolated incidents and violence is still extremely rare, considering how many people are living in this country, so I don't live in fear. I'm much more likely to get killed in a car crash, in a robbery or mugging, or from a stroke (or even from lightning) than from anti-governmental terrorism.