Comments on: The Annual Misuse of Hate Crime Statistics

By: More on Hate Crimes Statistics | The League of Ordinary Gentlemen

More on Hate Crimes Statistics | The League of Ordinary Gentlemen — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:11:52 +0000

[...] Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin has an excellent follow-up to my piece on the ways in which the FBI’s annual hate crimes report is misused. Check it out here. [...]

By: Box Turtle Bulletin » Sexual Orientation Hate Crimes: Did They Really Go Up?

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 07:02:39 +0000

[...] sexual orientation went up. But before we jump on that bandwagon, Andrew Sullivan points us to an important caution by Mark Thompson who sees what he considers an “annual misuse of hate crime statistics“: Every year [...]

By: Mark Thompson

Mark Thompson — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:29:31 +0000

It’s not distracting if the primary way in which the data is being used is as a measurement of trends, which is in fact how the data is being touted. It is thus important to point out that the data does not, in fact, show any trends.

As for how various crimes break down by bias, table 4 of the report provides that information. It shows 1 race-based killing, 3 anti-gay killings, 2 anti-bisexual killings, and 1 anti-Hispanic killing. However, it’s difficult to read anything into those numbers given not only the very small sample size but also, again, the fact that state hate crime laws vary so wildly.

By: BobN

BobN — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:19:52 +0000

Ooops, take that back. It’s in Table 4.

Nevermind.

By: BobN

BobN — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:16:49 +0000

Discussing the uselessness of the data as a measure of trends seems rather, well, distracting. I, for one, would like to know how the seven bias-based killings last year break down by bias. Oddly, the stats don’t seem to offer those details…

By: ThatPirateGuy

ThatPirateGuy — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:18:58 +0000

One problem at a time!

By: zic

zic — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:59:44 +0000

I’d guess there’s general under-reporting to the authorities, as well. I’m sure many crimes committed simply because a victim is gay, like many sexual assaults against women, aren’t reported because of the stigma involved; particularly for people who haven’t come out. I’m sure other crimes are reported as assault, vandalism, etc. though there was a ‘hate’ aspect to the crime.

By: Jaybird

Jaybird — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:26:08 +0000

If I may ask a wicked question, did the run of the mill, just a garden variety assult and battery, this was only a random guy who happened to be Muslim who shot people while yelling “Allahu Akbar” kinda crimes go up or down?

I ask because, if *I* were a reporter whose favorite headline was “WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE” and the crimes that consisted of little more than random people killing other random people for reasons we can’t really determine went *DOWN*, I might be tempted to read these numbers and say “Hey, I might be able to use my favorite headline after all…”

By: Mark Thompson

Mark Thompson — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:46:06 +0000

That’s one way of interpreting the data that is at least equally plausible – if not more so – as the interpretation offered by the sources cited above.

By: Mark Thompson

Mark Thompson — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:44:27 +0000

That’s certainly part of it. But a good chunk of this is also that each state has wildly varying hate crimes laws. So even if every agency had a formal mechanism for reporting hate crimes, you’d still get impossible-to-interpret data simply because of the different definitions of what constitutes a hate crime, to say nothing of variations in local law enforcement priorities.