Hate Crime in Canada: An Overview of Issues and Data Sources

• NCJ Number: 207239
• Author(s): Derek E. Janhevich
• Date Published: January 2001
• Length: 50 pages
• Sale Source: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics
• Publication Format: Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: Canada
• Note: Downloaded October 15, 2004.

Annotation

As part of a larger study of the nature of hate crime in Canada and the feasibility of collecting police hate-crime data, this report identifies pertinent issues, previous findings on hate crimes in Canada, international comparisons, recent initiatives against hate crimes, current data sources, police data-collection resources, and findings from the 1999 General Social Survey, which measured self-reported hates crimes at the national level for the first time.

Abstract

The report begins with a review of the literature on the history of hate crime in Canada, definitions of hate crime, available research and data on hate crimes, and factors that contribute to the commission of hate crimes. The next section of the report focuses on hate crime data-collection issues. Issues discussed include the benefits and disadvantages of collecting hate-crime statistics; data-collection strategies in other jurisdictions, with attention to the United States and the United Kingdom; police-reported statistics on hate crime; community-group statistics; and victimization surveys. Another section of the report examines police policies and procedures that might facilitate or impede police agencies' recording of data on hate crimes known to the police. This section concludes that most police agencies in Canada have a substantial infrastructure of policies, procedures, and definitions in place that would facilitate the collection of statistics on hate-crimes. The results of the 1999 General Social Survey indicate that of the total number of victimization incidents reported, 4 percent (272,732 incidents) were considered by the victim to be motivated by hate because of some victim characteristic, most often the victim's race. The general conclusion of this report is that data on the nature and extent of hate crimes in Canada are lacking, and this impedes the development of effective response strategies. 54 references and appended hate-crime data-collection forms used for U.S. national databases and detailed findings on Canadian police's data-collection policies and procedures