Panel Discussion On Hate Crimes Stresses Lack of Accurate Data as Major Contributor to Issue

posted on: Jul 3, 2017

By Daniel Gil/Contributing Writer

At an AAI (Arab American Institute) panel discussion addressing the increase in hate crimes and hate groups in the U.S. held on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning, experts outlined a number of reasons and responses tailored to the issue.

Since the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, hate crimes have risen by more than 20 percent. Ironically however, one of the major issues facing policymakers, law enforcement officials, and experts is the lack of accurate data. At Tuesday’s panel discussion, much deeper than the very real problem of hate crimes targeting minorities are the inaccuracies in how the data is collected and reported, which has unfortunately led to debate on how lawmakers should address the problem rather than meaningful legislation.

According to Michael German, a panelist and fellow for the Brennan Institute for Justice, “There is a massive discrepancy of numbers of hate crimes in the agencies and NGO’s which are tasked with reporting them.” German is a former F.B.I. agent who specialized in domestic terrorism and covert operations.

One of the agencies tasked with reporting hate crimes statistics is the F.B.I. which submits yearly reports on the issue. They gather the data through law enforcement offices across the country which report them to the F.B.I. As a reference, in 2011, 1,944 agencies reported a total of 6,222 hate crimes taken from police jurisdictions covering roughly 88 percent of the U.S. population. However, compared with the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (B.J.S.) report on bias crimes for the same year, those numbers are incredibly low. The B.J.S.’s report stated that 263,530 violent bias crimes took place during that year, an astoundingly high number compared with the F.B.I.’s data.

This is due in part to the fact that the F.B.I data relies on reports gathered from police departments whereas the B.J.S. compiles data based on the interviews with victims of hate crimes which are taken from a sample population and then inflated for a national estimate.

This changes the way that hate crimes are addressed and how they come to be reported, says Johnathan Smith, the Legal Director for Muslim Advocates. “There is an underlying lack of mistrust of law enforcement in minority communities,” Smith said, which makes people under report hate crimes in communities where they may occur the most. “We need to rebuild the trust with police in these communities,” he continued.

This has become especially true within communities of muslims. According to a recent report released by the Center for Arab and Islamic Relations (CAIR)  a 44 percent increase in hate crimes against muslims occurred in 2016. They reported 2,213 “anti-muslim bias incidents” occurred in 2016 and largely cited rhetoric during the Presidential election as a key contributor to this.Despite the discrepancy in figures, one thing is certain of all the reports documenting hate crimes in the United States is that they have risen in recent years.

The panelists suggested five major steps lawmakers could take in addressing the issue of upticks in hate crimes in a press release for the panel discussion. They are as follows:

1. Congress should support the passage of the “No Hate Act” (S. 662 and H.R. 1566) which was introduced by U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.). The law provides incentives for local governments to report hate crimes (such as government grants for states who create hotlines for hate crimes), and provides for a private civil action.
2. Engage in a national public education campaign to end anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry, rhetoric, and myths.
3. Support and work in partnership with all communities targeted by hate.
4. Hold candidates and public officials accountable for their rhetoric against all communities by having them sign the Arab American Institute’s commitment to combat bigotry and uphold civil discourse.
5. Prioritize work with federal, state, and local officials to investigate housing related hate crimes, and increase enforcement of the National Fair housing Act and HUD violations.