Bridging the Information Deficit In Bias Crime Reporting

James J. Nolan, Ph.D.

West Virginia University

Outline of Presentation

Describe the National Hate Crime Data Collection Program in the U.S.

Conceptual Framework for Viewing Police Data as a Valid Source of National Statistics

Identify and Explain Social Forces that Affect Police Participation in Hate Crime Reporting

Highlight Reasons Why Police are the Best Source of Hate Crime Statistics

The National Hate Crime Data Collection Program

Developed after passage of the Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990.

FBI added hate crime to the existing UCR program

Approximately 18,000 police agencies participate in the UCR program

See Tables 1 and 2

The Validity of Police Crime Data: A Statistical Perspective

• Accounting Perspective vs. a Statistical Perspective

• Error in data expected and acceptable from a statistical perspective

• Error must be measurable.

CRIME OCCURS

VICTIMREPORTSCRIME

POLICE RECORDCRIME

POLICEDATABASE

Figure 1. The Location of Error in Police Data

Unrecognized crimes

Victim failsTo report Crime

Police failTo file report Mis

Classifiedcrimes Missing

data

Organizational and Intrapersonal Forces that Affect Reporting

Organizational Forces Commitment to process Organizational culture Policies and Procedure

Individual Forces Personal prejudices Lack of training Professional Vision – Learning to See hate

crimes

How Terms Take on MeaningJohn Dewey (1910)

(1) Intention - to define the term so as to single it out

(2) Extension - mark off certain groups of things that do and don’t fit the definition.

I – Set of events that fit the ODIHR statistical definition of hate crime

I IIIII

III – Set of events that fit both the criminal and statistical definitions of hate crimes

II – Set of events that fit the local criminal definition of hate crime

Figure 2. Sorting Out the Statistical and Criminal Definitions of Hate Crimes

Importance of Police Involvement in Collecting Hate Crime Statistics

Police are in a position to help victims and communities

Important way to improve police-community relations

Police learn to see hate crimes

Great source of local, regional, and national statistics