2018 U.S. Hate Crimes

State:

NOTE: Wyoming not included in the original data collected by the FBI.
*State HAS hate crime laws but is NOT required to collect data. Data may not be accurate.
**State does NOT have hate crime laws and is NOT required to collect data. Data may not be accurate.
More info can be found here.

Introduction

The United States is commonly referred to as a "melting pot" because it is rich with cultures from around the world. The ideal would be for everyone to coexist peacefully, but unfortunately many people are scared of difference. There are people in America who are fueled with hate, especially towards those that appear different from them, and choose to act on that hate in violent ways. The data presented here comes directly from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's official database and looks at reported hate crimes throughout the U.S. Due to the large amount of data, I chose to specifically use the most recent collection which comes from 2018.

**DISCLAIMER**

This data comes solely from the information provided and is not a reflection of my own beliefs and values. Although many people see hate crimes as only being crimes against minority groups, the FBI does not view them as being exclusive to minorities. They define a hate crime as a "criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity."_cite

What is Being Investigated?

There are five main categories of hate crimes that this data looks at in each state: Race, Religion, Disability, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation. Each category can be broken down into sub-groups to further look at which specific group was targeted in a hate-motivated crime. For example, within the "Disability" category, it gets broken down into whether the crime was committed against someone for a physical disability or a mental one.

How to View the Data

Use the dropdown to select the state you would like to look at. The bar graph lists the total number of hate crimes reported each month in 2018. Clicking on a bar will allow you to look at a breakdown of what kind of hate crimes occurred in that month. The sunburst will show you the main category, the sub-group, where it was committed, and the date it was committed.

Findings

Generally speaking, the type of hate crime that seems to be the most prevalent among all 50 (actually 49 because Wyoming isn't listed) is race-related, specifically against Black/African-American people. Race-related hate crimes are frequently seen as making up at least 50% of the hate crimes reported. In many instances across the states listed, Anti-Black hate crimes contribute to all, or nearly all, race-related hate crimes in a given month. The second largest reported hate crime is unsurprisingly sexual orientation-related crimes. Within this category, the majority of crimes are against gay males. The other types within that category are against gay women, bisexual people, and any other queer orientation. The third category that stands out as being reported often is religion. Religious hate crimes are mostly against Jewish people and Muslims*.

*I acknowledge the fact that some argue that being Muslim or Jewish is more than just a religion. For simplicity's sake of the data visualization, I have chosen to group them under "Religion."

Caveats

It is very difficult to compare each state to one another because this data does not take into account differences in population size. For example, it makes sense that California has drastically more cases than Delaware or Rhode Island, solely for the fact that it is vastly more densely populated. Another important point to note is that these are just reports. There is no information detailing whether or not these cases were proven to be true or false. In the data itself, it lists offense descriptions, and some list car theft as a hate crime, which seems highly improbable. Lastly, as noted under the dropdown menu, many states are not required to collect any data relating to hate crimes--some don't even have hate crime laws. This means that there are most likely more hate crimes in these states that just go unnoticed (not to mention, Wyoming is absent from the data completely). Based on the findings of what is provided, it can be safe to assume that the data unreported would align with the patterns seen here.

Conclusion

From this data, it is evident that the United States needs to do more work to protect people from bias-fueled hate crimes. Black people, gay people, and Jewish and Islamic people are still subjected to prejudice and hate in 2018 (and even today in 2020). This hate has roots deep in U.S. history, dating even before slavery. It needs to end, but it can't without action from everyone. There are a surprising number of states that do not have hate crime laws and/or do not have to report hate crimes, which means the American people and the government are not being accurately informed of the prevalence of this issue. We, as a country, need to make changes to bring these numbers down.