For Immediate Release October 28, 2003 Report's Deficiencies Underscore Continuing Need for Improved Federal Hate Crimes Tracking
New York –
Yesterday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released its annual Uniform Crime Report (UCR), which represents a compilation of data on crimes occurring in the United States and contains a section with a preliminary accounting of Hate Crimes. The 2002 UCR counted 7,462 hate-related incidents. These incidents affected a total of 9,222 victims.
Of those incidents, 1,244 (16.6%) targeted victims because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation, an 11% decrease from 2001. These incidents involved 1,513 victims, a 9% decrease, and they represented 16.4% of all victims. Sexual orientation represents the third largest hate-motivation tracked by the FBI and lesbian, gay and bisexual victims represent the third largest group of victims after victims targeted because of their race or religion. The FBI does not keep statistics on hate crimes motivated by victims' gender identity or expression.
The FBI's statistics fall far short of the number of incidents tracked in the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs' (NCAVP) 2002 report on hate violence, which recorded 1,968 incidents in only twelve regions across the nation – more than half of which involved criminal offenses.
"The fact that the FBI's statistics continue to dramatically undercount anti-LGBT hate crimes is something that should give us all pause," said Clarence Patton, NCAVP's Acting Executive Director. "For NCAVP and its members, which clearly have far fewer resources than the federal government to consistently report more and more detailed information on hate crimes against LGBT people should truly be a source of embarrassment for the FBI," continued Patton. In 2001, NCAVP was able to capture information on 26% more hate incidents though NCAVP's information only covered regions representing one-eighth of the nation's population, while the FBI's information ostensibly offered 100% national coverage.
"The deficiencies in the FBI's survey point to a series of shortcomings with respect to hate crimes tracking by federal, state and local officials," said Patton. "The FBI only reports on cases sent by local and state law enforcement agencies, and where there is no mandate for those agencies to send information to the FBI, there is absolutely no compelling reason for them to do so, beyond simply doing the right thing. In Colorado, there were 96 incidents of all types reported to the FBI, while the Colorado Anti-Violence Project (CAVP) recorded 159 anti-LGBT incidents in 2002," added Patton.
"However, even in locales where there is a mandate to report, such as a hate crimes law, many jurisdictions are out of compliance – for instance, in New York State, only 63, or 12% of agencies submitted data. Though we'd love to believe that there were no hate crimes in 442 of 505 jurisdictions in New York State, experience unfortunately tells a different story," said Patton.
"We hope that we will have the opportunity to work with the FBI to address the ongoing difficulties the agency experiences in tracking hate crimes. Issues of training, commitment and a clear understanding of what hate crimes actually are no doubt impede their ability to produce truly relevant reports on hate violence," concluded Patton.
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