NOTE: This is an intermittent feature highlighting CSUSB faculty who are mentioned in the news. Faculty, if you are interviewed and quoted by news media, or if your work has been cited, and you have an online link to the article or video, please let us know. Contact us at news@csusb.edu.
News media sought the expertise of two Cal State San Bernardino criminal justice professors over the winter break.
Stephen Tibbetts was quoted in an article by The Sun about the number of homicides in San Bernardino in 2016, the city’s deadliest in 20 years, with 62 homicides. In 1995, 67 people were killed.
The toll in 2016 is 50 percent higher over the average of the previous five years, when on average nearly 42 people were killed — a sudden surge that’s hard to account for. In fact, statistically, some kind of jump every few years isn’t unlikely, said Tibbetts, who studies the risk factors and causes of criminality. And San Bernardino, he says, is full of risk factors — not just this year, but for decades.
“A huge problem there is they’re just in a bad state as a city,” Tibbetts said, noting the major loss of employment from the closure of Kaiser Steel in 1984, then the repair functions at the Santa Fe Depot, then Norton Air Force Base in 1994.
“When all those employment opportunities evaporate, you don’t have much to work with,” Tibbets said. “Adding 100 cops, that’s easy. It costs money, and this is a bankrupt city, but that’s nothing compared to fixing the systemic problems in an entire city.”
The article was published Dec. 31, 2016, and may be read at “This is how San Bernardino officials are working to address 2016’s homicide surge.”
And reporters continue to interview Brian Levin, who is director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.
Public radio’s “Background Briefing with Ian Masters” featured Levin in a segment with the talk show’s host in which they discussed a heavily-armed anti-Semitic protest march against Jews and Jewish businesses by American Nazis in Montana that is planned to coincide with president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. That interview, posted on Dec. 28, 2016, may be heard at “December 28 - Obama's and Kerry's last-minute stand against the Israeli right; American Nazis plan an inauguration protest march against Jews; did the angry white working class vote for a team of billionaires?”
The Daily Beast contacted Levin about some hate crime reports that turned out to be false. While skeptics fixate on a handful of these false reports, the number of real hate crimes has been rising across the United States. Whether concocted for political causes, motivated by a bid for public sympathy, or to cover up illicit behavior, such deceptions are exceedingly rare—between 2 percent and 8 percent of all reported cases, according to the FBI.
“Some of the things we see with regards to false reports of hate crimes include mental instability, people who are out for publicity or the elevation of status, or they want attention pointed to a particular [social or political] grievance that they have,” said Levin. “We also see insurance fraud and things like that.
“One of the things you’re going to have look for, too, is how publicized this is,” added Levin. “Once there’s a lot of publicity, you’re going to have people who just want the publicity. Or the status elevation.”
The article, which also linked to the center’s special report, “Hate Crime in the United States,” was published Dec. 22, 2016, and can be read at “Sorry, haters — a handful of hoaxes doesn’t debunk the hate-crime reality.”
Portland (Maine) Press Herald contacted Levin for its article about an investigation in a Maine city that focused on anti-Muslim messages. With no new evidence and no suspect, the Westbrook (Maine) Police Department has closed an investigation into anti-Muslim threats found at an apartment complex in August. Despite the apparent dead end, however, the police department’s response has quelled some of the fear that rippled through the local Muslim community after the discovery of the typewritten messages that read: “All Muslims are Terrorists should be Killed.”
Levin and other experts talked about the difficulty in prosecuting hate crimes. “Even if we get an assailant, most hate crimes that end up getting prosecuted (are) prosecuted under traditional criminal statutes,” he said.
Read the complete article at “Investigation of anti-Muslim hate crime in Westbrook ends with no answers,” which was published Jan. 3, 2017.
Levin was quoted in an article by The Chronicle of Philanthropy for an article about some controversial nonprofit groups, branded by some critics as “hate groups,” that receive federal tax-exempt status. A former Southern Poverty Law Center employee, Levin said 'hate group' designations are invariably going to be controversial. Though he believes the SPLC’s list is 'principled,' Levin said it is incomplete — leaving out, for example, groups viewed as far left. That article, published Dec. 22, 2016, may be read at “Dozens of ‘hate groups’ have charity status, Chronicle study finds.”
On Dec. 23, 2016, Levin was one of the guest speakers at the Baitul Hameed Mosque in Chino, which celebrated is annual year-end, weekend-long gathering known as Jalsa Salana. Part of the festivities included a public session that focused on dispelling the myths, distortion and misconceptions about Islam. That article, published Dec. 25, 2016, in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, may be read at “Extremist Muslims will not have final word, terrorism expert says.”