NCJ Number
168651
Journal
Journal of Crime and Justice Volume: 20 Issue: 1 Dated: (1997) Pages: 91-106
Date Published
1997
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This study analyzes secondary data addressing types of offenses and bias motivations supplied by the Uniform Crime Reporting Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Abstract
Since the Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990, there has been considerable interest in bias crime measurement. In addition to official sources of bias crime data collected by the FBI, several unofficial sources have contributed to the literature. The present study used secondary data collected by the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Division. Analysis revealed that data covering 1991 to 1994 show remarkable stability when examining both bias motivation and type of offense. Additionally, the official data tend to support findings from previous research that bias crimes categorized as harassment or intimidation are the most frequently reported and that racial bias is one of the most commonly occurring reasons for hate crime. Future researchers may wish to explore specific dimensions of bias crimes such as the nature of bias motivation, to reexamine the patterns in offense categories and to focus more specifically on the characteristics of victims as well as offenders. References