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Author: Gover, A. R., Harper, S. B., & Langton, L. (2020). Anti-Asian Hate Crime During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Exploring the Reproduction of Inequality. American Journal of Criminal Justice: AJCJ, 45(4), 647–667. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-020-09545-1

Year: Published 2020

Method: Secondary data analysis of Uniform Crime Reporting and National Crime Victimization Survey data between 2003-2018

  • Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR): The FBI annually collects summary crime data from thousands of city, county, college and university, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies nationwide through the UCR Program. Through a supplementary collection to the UCR, the Hate Crime Statistics Program, the FBI additionally collects data on hate crime incidents, offenses, and victims, including details about the offender’s bias motivation and whether he or she was motivated by anti-Asian bias.
  • National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS): The NCVS collects information from a nationally representative sample of households about experiences with crime both reported and not reported to police. Upon identifying that a respondent has experienced crime, the NCVS asks victims if they have any reason to believe that the victimization was a “hate crime or crime of prejudice or bigotry”. Victimizations are only categorized as hate crimes if the victim can provide certain types of evidence to support an affirmative response (Addington, 2008). Additionally, the NCVS asks hate crime victims about the types of bias they suspected motivated the crime (Masucci & Langton 2017).

Population: AA & NHPI; national

Summary of findings: Across two 5-year periods (2003-2007 and 2014-2018), UCR data revealed that there was a 27% decrease in single-bias racially motivated hate crimes, and a 31% decrease in anti-Asian motivated hate crimes. When interpreting UCR hate crime statistics, it is important to take into account the underreporting problems associated with these data. The NCVS also revealed a decrease across the two periods, with hate crimes overall declining by 15% and hate crimes against people of Asian descent declining by 7%. The NCVS data also reveal that less than half of hate crime victimizations overall (43%) are reported to police, and this is true among Asian victims as well (48%). The discrepancies in the percentage decrease in anti-Asian motivated hate crimes suggest underreporting of hate crimes to law enforcement. Additionally, the vast difference between the UCR’s and NCVS’s reported numbers of racially motivated hate crimes is striking and problematic. For example, from 2003 to 2007, UCR data indicate that there were 6,241 hate crimes motivated by racial/ethnic prejudice, while NCVS data demonstrate that 177,946 hate crimes involved racial/ethnic bias motivation, which is an approximate 186% difference between the two.