By Caroline Wolf Harlow Ph - PDF document

This BJS report uses data from theNCVS to provide information on hatecrimes both reported and not reportedto police and compares some of thesefindings to those reported by the FBI.Hate crimes committed because of prejudiceThe 1990 Hate Crime Statistics Actcharged the U.S. Attorney General to“acquire data... about crimes thatmanifest evidence of prejudice basedon race, religion, sexual orientation, orethnicity, including, where appropriate,the crimes of murder, non-negligentmanslaughter; forcible rape; aggra-vated assault, simple assault, intimida-tion; arson; and destruction, damage or vandalism of property.” A 1994amendment added the disabled to thelist of groups to be tracked. The Attorney General delegated datacollection of hate crimes principally to the FBI. They appended informationon bias motivation to the UCR. Thisprogram includes both the SummaryReporting System and the NationalIncident-Based Reporting System(NIBRS). In 1997 BJS and the U.S. CensusBureau, the data collection agent forthe NCVS, developed questionnaireitems to identify victims of hate crimes.The revised questions were fieldedbeginning in July 2000. This reportanalyzes data from July 2000 throughDecember 2003. Meeting the criteria established in theHate Crime Statistics Act, the NCVSdefines hate crimes as those incidentsin which victims believe the offenderselected them for a victimizationbecause of one or more of theirpersonal characteristics: race ethnicity religion sexual orientation disability. The definition also encompasses crimeincidents in which the offenderperceives the victim as belonging to orassociated with a group largely identi-fied by one of these characteristics.The NCVS definition requires thatcorroborating evidence of hate motiva-tion must be present at the incident: the offender used derogatory the offender left hate symbols, or the police confirmed that a hate crimehad taken place. Imputing offenders' motives is difficult.In the NCVS definition, hate or biasmotivation is inferred from the wordsand symbols used by the offender. Thismay or may not be an accurate way toevaluate whether the crime was a hatecrime. Victims or even police officersmay misinterpret the symbols or words.The NCVS provides a measure of whatvictims describe as hate-based crimes,but it cannot directly interpret theoffenders' intent. The result is that estimates of thevolume and rate of hate crime from theNCVS may not be consistent with otherestimates, which may measureincidence differently. The NCVS doesensure a stable methodology forcollecting the information over time andacross jurisdictions. The questionnaireemphasizes corroborating informationfrom the victim about the words orsymbols that can be reasonably under-stood to represent offender bias.Crimes reported to the NCVS — sexualassaults, robbery, assault, burglary,larceny, or vandalism — with evidenceof hatred toward any of these specificgroups have been classified as crimesmotivated by hate. The data for hatecrimes from the NCVS include informa-tion about victims, offenders, andcharacteristics of crimes — bothcrimes reported to police and crimesnot reported to police.Victims have reported an average of 191,000 hate crime incidentsannually since 2000Between July 2000 and December 31,2003, an annual average of 191,000hate crime incidents were estimatedfrom victim reports to the NCVS (table1). A hate crime incident may havemore than one victim. Victimizationscount one person or householdaffected by a criminal incident. Forviolent crimes, the number of victimiza-tions equals the number of personsinvolved. A crime against a householdis assumed to involve a single victimthe affected household. Annually210,000 victimizations motivated byhatred or bias occurred between July2000 and December 31, 2003. Approximately 3% of all violent crimesmeasured by the NCVS were hatecrimes. About 1 in every 500 property Hate Crime Reported by Victims and Police Note: Crimes include rape and other sexual assault, robbery, assault, larceny, and bur-glary. Vandalism is not included. Major vio-lent crime includes rape and other sexual assault, robbery, and assault either with a weapon or with injury.Source: BJS, National Crime Victimization Survey, July 2000 through December 2003.0.20.2Property2.82.6Major violent 3.13.0Violent 0.90.8All crimeHate crime as percent of —0.30.3 Property0.30.3 Major violent 0.80.7 Violent 0.90.8Rate per 1,000 14,11014,110Property47,00039,210Major violent77,52066,650Violent91,63080,760All hate crimesAnnual number reported to police34,38034,380Property80,06067,290Major violent176,050156,460Violent 210,430190,840All hate crimesAnnual number of hate based crimeszationsIncidentsVictimi-Table 1. Annual number, rate, and Survey 44% of hate crimes reported to policeA strength of the NCVS is the informa-tion provided by victims on their inter-actions with police after the crime.About 44% of hate crimes werereported to police (table 4). About aquarter of hate crimes were reportedby the victim and a tenth by someoneelse — another victim, a householdmember, or an official such as a guardor school authority. Hate crime accompanying a violentcrime and violent offenses without ahate component were reported topolice at the same rate (44% of violenthate crimes and 49% of other violentcrimes). The difference between haterelated (22%) and non-hate related(28%) violent crimes reported by thevictim was not statistically significant. In approximately 7 in 10 hate crimesreported to police, police were either atthe scene or came after they werecalled (table 5). In the remainingvictimizations, the victim went to police,the police didn’t come to the scene, orthe police were informed some otherway. All information came from theperiod between the crimes' occurrenceand the NCVS interview. Victims reported that the police tookaction in 85% of hate crimes. In half ofhate crimes reported to law enforce-ment, the police took a report of thecrime. In 32% of hate crimes, thepolice questioned witnesses orsuspects.In a third of hate crimes, the victim oranother household member signed acomplaint. In about 19% of hate crimes, the police arrested someonefor the offense.Victims' self-reports indicated thatpolice responded to a violent hatemotivated crime as they did to anon-hate based violent crime. In half ofthe reported victimizations, police tooka report, in about a third, theyquestioned witnesses or suspects; inabout a quarter, they made an arrest. Hate Crime Reported by Victims and Police Police confirmed 8% of hatevictimizations Overall, 8% of hate crime victimsreported to the NCVS that lawenforcement determined the victimi-zation to be bias related. Accordingto victims, police validated approxi-mately 1 in 5 hate crime victimiza-tions that were reported to them ashate crimes.19.28.417,680Confirmed by police100.0%43.892,100Reported to police100.0%210,430Reportedto policeAnnualnumberHate crimesPercent of —Hate crime victimizations Note: Other than hate crimes are those described by victims as not having attributes that definehate crimes. Excluded from analysis were those crimes in which the victims did not know or didnot answer whether they were targeted as hate victims (5.2% of all victimizations). *Estimate is based on 10 or fewer sample cases.Includes other household members and official persons (guard, apartment manager, school authority, and others with official positions).Includes police at scene, police offenders, and other ways of reporting. Source: BJS, National Crime Victimization Survey, July 2000 through December 2003.1.20.51.7Don't know if reported49.555.454.5Not reported4.97.46.7Other16.615.012.8By someone else27.821.724.3By victim49.344.143.8Reported100.0100.0100.0Other than hateHateHateReporting to policeViolencePercent of victimizations by crimes of —Table 4. Reporting crimes of hate and other violent crimes to police Note: Other than hate crimes are those described by victims as not having attributes that definehate crimes. Excluded from analysis were those crimes in which the victims did not know or didnot answer whether they were targeted as hate victims (5.2% of all victimizations). The detail fortype of police contact adds to more than 100% because respondents could report more than onetype of contact. *Estimate is based on 10 or fewer sample cases. Source: BJS, National Crime Victimization Survey, July 2000 through December 2003.35.342.137.6Victim or other household member signed complaint14.314.815.025.837.634.9Other7.59.38.6Stayed in touch with victim0.70.00.0Recovered property32.822.919.3Made arrest13.813.513.8Did or promised surveillance/investigation33.135.232.3Questioned witnesses/suspects5.95.65.9Took evidence13.112.117.1Searched/looked around64.051.851.3Police took report85.785.285.0AnyType of police contact3.86.66.1Police found out another way10.612.912.8Police didn't come to scene6.07.07.3Respondent went to police3.36.65.6Police came but victim didn't know when26.624.427.6Police came to scene after 10 minutes43.632.232.0Police came within 10 minutes6.110.28.6Police were at sceneFirst contact with policeOther than hateHateHateOf crimes reported to policeViolencePercent of victimizations by crimes of —Table 5. Contacts with police for crimes of hate and other violent victimizations indicated that they had been a victim of a hate crime (table 8). There were no significant differences in rates of hate crime vulnerability forracial or ethnic groups. Whites werevictimized at a rate of 0.9 per 1,000,blacks at 0.7 per 1,000, members ofother races at 1.4 per 1,000, Hispanicsat 0.9 per 1,000, and non-Hispanics at0.9 per 1,000.Young people reported hate crimevictimization at rates higher than thoseof older persons. Those 17 or youngerexperienced about 1.9 hate crimes per1,000 persons, while those 50 or olderexperienced 0.4 per 1,000 annually. Persons who lived in cities were morelikely to be hate crime victims,compared to those living in suburbs orrural areas. About 1.3 per 1,000 livingin urban areas were victims annually,compared to 0.8 per 1,000 in suburbanareas and 0.7 in rural places.Motivations attributed by hate crimevictims to offenders did not vary signifi-cantly for male and female victims andyoung and old. About 1 in 6 of bothmen and women who were victims ofhate crimes reported that they werevictimized because of their sexualorientation. Motivation for Gender of victims hate crimes Male Race57.1%54.7%Association30.230.9Ethnicity28.926.7Sexual orientation16.319.7Perceived characteristics15.710.1Religion11.913.1Disability10.310.8Notes: Detail does not add to 100% becausesome respondents included more than onemotivation. Among victims of hate crimes, half of both whites and blacks and three-quarters of those identified as Asian or American Indian said they werevictimized because of their race.Three-quarters of Hispanic victims ofhate crime said they were victimizedbecause of their ethnicity. The smallnumbers of sampled black hate crimevictims limits analysis of the reasonsthey believe they were victimized.Motivation forRace/Et h nicity of victims hate crimes White Black Other Race54.7%50.9*%86.8%Association32.825.4*0.0*Ethnicity24.335.7*65.8*Sexual orientation19.611.7* 6.2*Perceived characteristics14.6 0.0*16.9*Religion14.5 0.0* 5.3*Disability11.7 7.6* 0.0*Non- Hispanic Hispanic Race55.1%56.4%Association20.2*31.4Ethnicity77.522.3Sexual orientation 3.5*19.6Perceived characteristics 7.0*13.5Religion 0.0*13.4Disability 3.1*11.4Notes: Detail does not add to 100% becausesome respondents included more than onemotivation.*Estimate is based on 10 or fewer cases.Includes American Indians and Asians. Personsof more than one race are excluded. Hate Crime Reported by Victims and Police About 1 in every 265 vandalized households considered thevandalism a hate crimeOn an annual basis, an average of5.9 million households were vandal-ized from July 2000 through Decem-ber 2003. Approximately 22,500households, 0.4% of all thosevandalized, showed evidence of hate motivation.Approximately 54 per 1,000 house-holds had experienced vandalism.*For 0.2 per 1,000 households (2 per10,000), the vandalism had theearmarks of a hate crime. *Vandalized households include only thosethat reported whether the vandalism was haterelated.Source: BJS, National Crime VictimizationSurve Jul y 2000 throu g h December 2003.0.2Hate related vandalism53.6VandalismRate per 1,000 households0.4%Hate related vandalism asa percent of all vandalism22,450Hate related vandalism5,942,610Vandalism incidents110,949,770Total number of householdsAvera e annual estimates Note: For property crimes, characteristics arethose of the person reporting the incident tothe NCVS.Includes American Indians and Asians.Persons of more than one race are excluded.*Estimate is based on 10 or fewer samplecases.Source: BJS, National Crime VictimizationSurvey, July 2000 through December 2003.0.60.70.70.8Suburban1.01.3ocation0.50.6Not reported0.70.7$50,000 or more0.91.0$25,000 - $49,9991.01.3Less than $25,000Household income0.70.8More than high schooldiploma0.60.9High school diploma1.01.1Less than high school diplomaEducational attainment0.2*0.1Widowed1.22.6Separated/divorced0.40.5Married1.41.5Never marriedMarital status0.30.550 or older0.71.00.60.91.01.11.61.61.61.617 or younger g 0.80.9Non-Hispanic0.80.9HispanicHispanic ori g 1.11.4Other0.50.7Black0.80.9White0.60.8Female0.91.0Male Violentof victimsAnnual rate of haterelated victimizationsper 1,000 personsCharacteristicTable 8. Characteristics of victims When hate victims reported that thepersons committing the crime wereblack, 9 in 10 victims said they thoughtthe offender’s motive for the crime wastheir race; in 2 in 10, they thought itwas ethnicity. For victims reportingwhite offenders, about 3 in 10 victimsattributed the crime to race, 3 in 10 tothe characteristics of associates of thevictim, 3 in 10 to their ethnicity, and 3 in 10 to their sexual orientation. Race of offenders White Black Other Race30.5%89.1%59.3%Association28.624.221.1*Ethnicity30.219.152.1Sexual orientation27.8 8.3* 12.4*Perceived characteristics16.2 8.8* 5.3*Religion17.0 1.9* 14.3*Disability13.5 2.0*3.0*Notes: Detail does not add to 100% becausesome victims reported multiple motivations.*Estimate is based on 10 or fewer cases. Includes American Indians and Asians. A quarter of the hate crime offendersidentified as at least 21 were said bytheir victims to have committed theoffense because of the victim’s ethnic-ity or the characteristics of personswith whom they associated. 20 or21 or younger older Race50.5%59.1%Association28.626.8Ethnicity24.6*28.0Sexual orientation16.0*19.6Perceived characteristics 9.6*12.0Religion14.5* 9.5Disability12.1* 9.1Notes: Detail does not add to 100% becausesome victims reported multiple motivations.*Estimate is based on 10 or fewer cases. Hate crime victims and offendersdiffer in ageThe following compares the gender,race, and age of crime victims withthose of their offenders. Some tablecells have few cases, making conclu-sions tentative. About 9 in 10 male hate crime victimsreported that the person who victimizedthem was also male. Female victimswere almost equally likely to have beenvictimized by males and females, with59% identifying a male offender and50% a female offender (including the9% who said both males and femalescommitted the hate crime). Gender of victim Gender of offender Male Male89.3%49.7%Female 6.1*41.0Both 4.5* 9.3**Estimate is based on 10 or fewer samplecases.Source: BJS, National Crime VictimizationSurvey, July 2000 through December 2003. About 4 in 10 white hate crime victimsindicated that the offenders were white,and the same proportion reported theoffenders to have been black. Thesmall number of black hate crimevictims precludes analysis of the raceof persons who victimized them. Race of victim Race of offender White Black Other White43.2%85.2%*51.7%*Black43.314.8*25.1*Other13.4 0.0*23.2**Estimate is based on 10 or fewer sample cases.Source: BJS, National Crime VictimizationSurvey, July 2000 through December 2003. Young victims — those 20 or younger— reported young offenders, and oldervictims — those 21 or older — olderoffenders. Approximately 61% of youngvictims said the offenders were young,and 88% of older victims had olderoffenders. Hate Crime Reported by Victims and Police Note: Other than hate crimes are those described by victims as not having attributes that definehate crimes. Excluded are crimes for which the victims did not know or answer whether they weretargeted as hate victims (5.2% of all victimizations).*Estimate is based on 10 or fewer sample cases.Source: BJS, National Crime Victimization Survey, July 2000 through December 2003.2.22.92.5Both49.955.350.8Outside47.941.746.7InsideInside/outside25.428.426.5More than 5 miles from home23.622.622.01 to 5 miles from home18.422.420.5Less than a mile from home32.526.631.0At home/next doorDistance from home8.09.99.5Other12.920.320.1School38.542.037.9Commercial place, parking, on street9.96.66.3At a friend's house30.721.326.2At or near victim's homeType of place5.31.96.0Unknown12.47.98.2Midnight to 6 a.m.33.229.026.56 p.m. to midnight36.742.541.3Noon to 6 p.m.12.518.718.06 a.m. to noonTimeOther than hateHateHateTime and place of occurrenceViolencePercent of victimizations for crimes of —Table 10. Hate crime and other types of crime, by time and place of occurrence Basic categories of offensesmotivated by hate similar for both NCVS and UCRAbout 8 in 10 hate crimes are violentcrimes and the remaining 2 in 10 areproperty crimes as described by theHowever, among violent hate crimes,the NCVS reports substantially higherpercentages of aggravated assault —crimes involving injuries from attacksor the use of a weapon (25% of NCVScrimes reported to police versus 14%of UCR reports). The NCVS hatecrimes include a smaller percentage ofcrimes classified as intimidation orverbal threats than the UCR (21% ofNCVS crimes reported to police and40% of UCR reports). Among property crimes perceived to behate related and said by NCVS victimsto be reported to police, the NCVS andUCR both reported relatively smallpercentages of hate crime in burglary(8% and 2%) and larceny or householdtheft (7% and 1%). NCVS hate crimes not reported to lawenforcement differed in seriousnessfrom the ones reported to police. Asmaller percentage of the unreportedare aggravated assaults(14% versus 25%). Asomewhat higherpercentage of unreportedcrimes (34%) thanreported crimes (21%)were crimes ofintimidation.Some basic characteristics of hatecrime victims differ in NCVS andNIBRS data provide a richer array ofinformation on victim and offendercharacteristics than does the UCR'sreporting on hate crime from itssummary program. However, NIBRSinformation can be attributed only tocrimes in the NIBRS jurisdictions, for itis not statistically representative ofcrimes reported to police nationwide.Hence, any relationships between theNCVS and NIBRS data could becoincidental. NCVS figures are repre-sentative of hate crimes nationwide. While the majority of hate crime victimsdescribed by both the NCVS crimesreported to police and the NIBRS aremale, higher percentages of NCVShate crime victims are womencompared to NIBRS hate crime victims(49% of NCVS crimes reported topolice and 35% of NIBRS).Compared to NIBRS, the NCVS had ahigher percentage of white hate crimevictims. Among hate crime victims,approximately 84% of those in NCVSand 67% of those in NIBRS were white.Conversely, a smaller percentage ofNCVS hate crime victims were black;11% in the NCVS compared to 29% inNIBRS. NCVS victims were also olderthan those reported in NIBRS. About64% were 30 or older among theNCVS victims and 45% among NIBRSvictims.Some basic characteristics of hatecrime offenders also differ betweenNCVS and NIBRSHate crime offenders described by theNCVS crimes reported to police differfrom those in the NIBRS in number ofoffenders, and their race, age, relation-ship to victim, and weapon use.Both the NCVS and NIBRS describethat half of the hate crime Hate Crime Reported by Victims and Police Note: For property crimes, characteristics are those of head of household. For the 1,725 hate crime victimizations in NIBRS, the missing data for victim characteristics were as follows: 22 cases missing gender, 94 missing race, 721 missing ethnicity, and 72 missing age. *Estimate is based on 10 or fewer sample cases.Sources: BJS, National Crime Victimization Survey, July 2000 through December 2003; and National Incident-Based Reporting System, 2002.10.415.917.516.550 or older34.947.826.837.324.118.618.318.111.49.69.49.319.18.128.018.817 or youngerAge91.290.886.588.6Non-Hispanic8.89.213.511.4HispanicEthnicit 4.44.76.95.8Other29.110.98.09.2Black66.584.485.185.0White35.349.040.244.6Female64.751.059.855.4Maleing Programto policeto policeof victimsbased Report-ReportedNot reportedCharacteristicsNationalIncident-National Crime Victimization SurveyPercent of hate crime victimizationsTable 13. Characteristics of victims of hate crime Note: The NCVS total includes cases without data on reporting to police.*Estimate is based on 10 or fewer sample cases./Not available. Includes arson.Sources: BJS, National Crime Victimization Survey, July 2000 through December 2003; and FBI, Uniform Crime Reporting Program Hate Crime File, 2002.0.1 Other property17.5 Vandalism1.27.414.412.3 Theft0.10.70.00.3 Motor vehicle theft1.57.70.63.7 Burglary20.415.815.016.3Property crime40.220.634.028.0Verbal threat/intimidation23.227.329.828.2Simple assault13.525.413.518.5Aggravated assault2.24.65.45.00.26.32.34.0Rape/sexual assault0.1Homicide79.684.285.083.7Violent crimeProgramto policeto policeType of crimeReportingReportedNot reportedUniformCrimeNational Crime Victimization SurveyPercent of hate crime victimizationsTable 12. Type of hate crime reported to the NCVS and the UCR tested to determine if observed differ-ences were statistically significant.Differences described as higher, lower,or different passed a hypothesis test atthe .05 level of statistical significance(95% confidence level). The testeddifference was greater than twice thestandard error of that difference. Significance testing calculations wereconducted at BJS using statisticalprograms developed specifically for theNCVS by the US Census Bureau.These programs take into considera-tion many aspects of the complexNCVS sample design when calculatinggeneralized variance estimates.VandalismThe numbers on vandalism reportedhere differ from the BJS households-victimized-by-crime measure in severalways. This report uses data collectedfrom July 2000 through December2003 rather than victimizations attributed to a specific calendar year.The numbers are also an annualaverage for the 3½ years, rather thannumbers for a specific year. A household was counted as havingexperienced vandalism if they werevandalized in any 6-month period, whilethe households-victimized-by-crimemeasure counts households vandal-ized within a year. Vandalism was notincluded in the analysis of NCVS hatecrimes unless it was a part of anotherNCVS crime. See the box on page 6for estimates of vandalism. Some limitations of dataThe Hate Crime Statistics Act does notinclude gender as a hate condition andit has not been included in either NCVSor UCR publications. Some informationrelevant to analyzing hate crime is notincluded in either the NCVS or theUCR, such as, ethnicity other thanHispanic, sexual orientation, and relig-ious background or affiliation. Hate Crime Reported by Victims and Police The Bureau of Justice Statistics isthe statistical agency of the U.S.Department of Justice. Lawrence A.Greenfeld is director.Caroline Wolf Harlow wrote thisreport. Michael Rand, Patsy Klaus,and Ramona Rantala providedstatistical assistance and verified thereport. Tom Hester and CarolynWilliams produced and edited it.Denise Lewis, NCVS Research Unit,Demographic Surveys Division, theU.S. Census Bureau, performedinitial analysis of the hate crimevariables and developed codedvariables. November 2005 NCJ 209911 Office of Justice ProgramsPartnerships for Safer Communitieshttp://www.ojp.usdoj.gov