New America Media, an online news site, recently hosted a panel discussion on hate crimes that included Brian Levin, Cal State San Bernardino criminal justice professor and director of the university’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.
On Jan. 23, the news site published an article about the short comings of current hate crime reporting by law enforcement agencies. Levin and the other panelists concluded that hate crimes against immigrant communities — which have spiked in the last two years — are “vastly under reported.”
Levin — a former New York City Police Department officer — said FBI statistics, the main source of hate crime information, are flawed because they rely on voluntary data from local and state law enforcement agencies, who may choose not to participate. Mississippi, for example, has one of the highest concentrations of African American residents in the nation, yet reported no hate crimes for 2015.
Many victims — especially immigrants — will not report hate crimes because of cultural and linguistic barriers, and a mistrust of law enforcement, said Levin. Police have trouble identifying and reporting hate crimes, he added.
That article may be read at Hate crimes vastly under-reported by victims, law enforcement.”
On Jan. 19, New America Media published an article about the challenges news media face in covering hate crimes. Levin and the other panelists advised journalists to keep a close eye on the intersection of crime and hate speech in their communities.
“Research has shown that in the wake of a catalytic incident, such as 9/11, [it] can create a correlation of a spike in hate crimes,” he said.
Statements made by political leaders immediately after such momentous events also have a profound impact on hate crime statistics. Levin pointed to some of the more toxic campaign rhetoric from President Donald Trump as example. Trump’s campaign speeches targeting Latinos and other minority groups were followed by a sharp increase in reported hate crimes, increasing at one point by as much as 86 percent, Levin said.
In contrast, the speech by President George W. Bush at a Washington-area mosque six days after the Sept. 11 attacks resulted in the level of hate crimes falling by double digits. Even more recently, the community of San Bernardino experienced zero hate crimes in the wake of the Dec. 2, 2015, mass shooting, a detail Levin attributes to the respectful tone set by political and community leaders.
The article was published Jan. 19, 2017.
Read the complete article at “Covering hate crimes in an increasingly toxic political world.”