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Hate Crime Reported by Victims and Police by Caroline Wolf Harlow, Ph.D

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Hate Crime Reported by Victims and Police by Caroline Wolf Harlow, Ph.D U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report November 2005, NCJ 209911 National Criminal Victimization Survey and Uniform Crime Reporting Hate Crime Reported by Victims and Police By Caroline Wolf Harlow, Ph.D. Highlights BJS Statistician A majority of hate crime victims identified race as the offenders' motivation An annual average of 210,000 hate crime victimizations occurred from July Motivation for hate crime 2000 through December 2003. During Race that period an average of 191,000 hate Association crime incidents involving one or more victims occurred annually. Victims also Ethnicity indicated that 92,000 of these hate Sexual orientation crime victimizations were reported to Perceived characteristic police. These estimates were derived from victim reports to the National Religion Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) of Disability the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Percent of hate crime incidents As defined here, an ordinary crime • Most hate crimes described by becomes a hate crime when offenders • Approximately 44% of hate victimi- victims accompanied violent crimes – choose a victim because of some zations were reported to police. a rape or other sexual assault, characteristic — for example, race, robbery, or assault (84%). The • When the victims themselves ethnicity, or religion — and provide remaining 16% were associated with reported to police, they did so pri- evidence that hate prompted them to property crimes – burglary or theft. marily to prevent the offender from commit the crime. Bias crime is committing further offenses (35%) another term for hate crime. Hate • Victims reported a major violent and to obtain help from the police crimes that respondents report in the crime – a rape, robbery, or an assault (33%). NCVS are based on victims’ percep- in which a victim was injured or threat- tions of why they became crime ened with a weapon – in a third of hate • In 41% of hate victimizations victims. incidents. reported to police, law enforcement was at the scene within 10 minutes. • In about half of hate crimes, the National data on hate crimes come victim was threatened verbally or • Per capita rates of hate crime vic- from two primary sources: assaulted without either a weapon or timization varied little by race or • NCVS — approximately 77,600 an injury being involved. ethnicity: about 0.9 per 1,000 whites, nationally representative persons 0.7 per 1,000 blacks, and 0.9 per • An estimated 3% of all violent crimes interviewed biannually about their 1,000 Hispanics were reported to the revealed to the NCVS by victims were experiences with crime National Crime Victimization Survey. perceived to be hate crimes. • the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting • Most likely to be offenders were Program (UCR) — law enforcement • Annually from July 2000 through men (79%) and strangers (51%). agency reports to the FBI on crimes December 2003 about 22,000 house- Two-thirds of violent hate victimiza- reported to police. holds experienced vandalism they tions involved a lone offender. thought was motivated by hate or bias. This BJS report uses data from the The definition also encompasses crime Table 1. Annual number, rate, and NCVS to provide information on hate incidents in which the offender percent of hate crimes reported crimes both reported and not reported perceives the victim as belonging to or to the National Crime Victimization to police and compares some of these associated with a group largely identi- Survey findings to those reported by the FBI. fied by one of these characteristics. Victimi- Incidents zations Hate crimes committed because The NCVS definition requires that Annual number of hate based crimes of prejudice corroborating evidence of hate motiva- All hate crimes 190,840 210,430 tion must be present at the incident: Violent 156,460 176,050 The 1990 Hate Crime Statistics Act Major violent 67,290 80,060 • the offender used derogatory charged the U.S. Attorney General to Property 34,380 34,380 language “acquire data... about crimes that Annual number • the offender left hate symbols, or manifest evidence of prejudice based reported to police • the police confirmed that a hate crime All hate crimes 80,760 91,630 on race, religion, sexual orientation, or had taken place. Violent 66,650 77,520 ethnicity, including, where appropriate, Major violent 39,210 47,000 the crimes of murder, non-negligent Property 14,110 14,110 Imputing offenders' motives is difficult. manslaughter; forcible rape; aggra- In the NCVS definition, hate or bias Rate per 1,000 vated assault, simple assault, intimida- persons/households 0.8 0.9 motivation is inferred from the words tion; arson; and destruction, damage Violent 0.7 0.8 and symbols used by the offender. This Major violent 0.3 0.3 or vandalism of property.” A 1994 may or may not be an accurate way to Property 0.3 0.3 amendment added the disabled to the evaluate whether the crime was a hate list of groups to be tracked. Hate crime crime. Victims or even police officers as percent of — may misinterpret the symbols or words. All crime 0.8% 0.9% The Attorney General delegated data Violent 3.0 3.1 The NCVS provides a measure of what collection of hate crimes principally Major violent 2.6 2.8 victims describe as hate-based crimes, Property 0.2 0.2 to the FBI. They appended information but it cannot directly interpret the on bias motivation to the UCR. This Note: Crimes include rape and other sexual offenders' intent. assault, robbery, assault, larceny, and bur- program includes both the Summary glary. Vandalism is not included. Major vio- Reporting System and the National lent crime includes rape and other sexual The result is that estimates of the Incident-Based Reporting System assault, robbery, and assault either with volume and rate of hate crime from the a weapon or with injury. (NIBRS). NCVS may not be consistent with other Source: BJS, National Crime Victimization estimates, which may measure Survey, July 2000 through December 2003. In 1997 BJS and the U.S. Census incidence differently. The NCVS does Bureau, the data collection agent for ensure a stable methodology for Victims have reported an average the NCVS, developed questionnaire collecting the information over time and of 191,000 hate crime incidents items to identify victims of hate crimes. across jurisdictions. The questionnaire annually since 2000 The revised questions were fielded emphasizes corroborating information beginning in July 2000. This report from the victim about the words or Between July 2000 and December 31, analyzes data from July 2000 through symbols that can be reasonably under- 2003, an annual average of 191,000 December 2003. stood to represent offender bias. hate crime incidents were estimated from victim reports to the NCVS (table Meeting the criteria established in the Crimes reported to the NCVS — sexual 1). A hate crime incident may have Hate Crime Statistics Act, the NCVS assaults, robbery, assault, burglary, more than one victim. Victimizations defines hate crimes as those incidents larceny, or vandalism — with evidence count one person or household in which victims believe the offender of hatred toward any of these specific affected by a criminal incident. For selected them for a victimization groups have been classified as crimes violent crimes, the number of victimiza- because of one or more of their motivated by hate. The data for hate tions equals the number of persons personal characteristics: crimes from the NCVS include informa- involved. A crime against a household • race tion about victims, offenders, and is assumed to involve a single victimC • ethnicity characteristics of crimes — both the affected household. Annually • religion crimes reported to police and crimes 210,000 victimizations motivated by • sexual orientation not reported to police. hatred or bias occurred between July • disability. 2000 and December 31, 2003. Approximately 3% of all violent crimes measured by the NCVS were hate crimes. About 1 in every 500 property 2 Hate Crime Reported by Victims and Police Table 2. Motivation and evidence perceive at least one of the offender’s Almost all bias crime victims cited in hate crime motivations to be prejudice. Victim race offenders' remarks as evidence for was the primary perceived offender Percent of classifying the offense as a hate hate crime C motivation reported by victims for hate crime Inci- Victim- crimes (table 2). In half of hate crimes dents zations recorded by the NCVS, race was seen Victims of hate crimes knew the Motivation by hate crime victims as the underlying crime they experienced was hate Race 55.4% 56.0% Association 30.7 30.6 motivation. In 1 in 4 hate crimes, the related because offenders made fun Ethnicity 28.7 27.9 victim’s ethnic origin was viewed by the of them, made negative comments, Sexual orientation 18.0 17.9 victim as the motivation for the crime. used slang, hurtful words, or abusive Perceived characteristic 13.7 13.2 language. About 99% of victims Religion 12.9 12.4 Disability 11.2 10.5 Victims also revealed to the NCVS that encountered hate-related language, they perceived the motive for about 3 irrespective of the offenders' Evidence of motivation Negative comments, hurtful in 10 hate crimes was the victim’s motives. words, abusive language 98.5% 98.5% association with persons who have Percent of victims identifying Confirmation by police certain characteristics, for example, a investigation 7.9 8.4 offenders' motivation Hate symbols 7.6 7.8 multiracial couple. Asso- Eth- Evidence Race ciation nicity Note: Detail adds to more than 100% because some respondents included more than one In about 1 in 6 incidents reported Negative motivation or evidence of motivation.
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