RESOURCE GUIDES
DATA GUIDE ON HATE & DISCRIMINATION
Hate and discrimination against Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities have been prevalent since the 1880s, and have waxed and waned for different communities each decade.
In the last 50 years, key flashpoints have centered around the settlement of refugees from Southeast Asia (1970s), economic competition with Japan (1980s), racial profiling and violent hate incidents after 9/11 (2000s to present), hate crimes exacerbated by COVID-19 (2020s), and ongoing acts of hate and discrimination associated with xenophobia and Islamophobia.
Research and data are key to having a clear understanding how these developments affect different members of our community, now and into the future. We have created a user-friendly guide to data sources that help us get a more precise understanding of hate incidents and hate crimes in AANHPI communities.
With this data resource guide and our forthcoming report (in early 2025), our goal is to help policymakers, researchers, and community partners make sense of anti-AAPI hate data/research and to unpack the complexity of anti-Asian hate incidents and crimes.
Below you will find a selection of research resources organized by data sources/data collection methods: survey, government agencies, community reporting tools, hybrid (multiple sources).
SURVEY DATA
This collection of selected data incorporates population surveys from various sources like AAPI Data/SurveyMonkey, Pew Research Center, AAPI Data/AP-NORC, and Civis Analytics. The survey data spans from 2020 through 2024 and covers all racial groups, with a particular focus on Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander populations.
The surveys investigate several key areas: experiences with hate crimes, comfort levels in reporting these crimes, confidence in the justice system following a report, general experiences and attitudes toward discrimination and racism in America, and personal knowledge of hate incidents against other AANHPI individuals.
The strengths of population surveys allow a broad sampling of individuals whether or not they have experienced hate incidents and/or crimes among different populations/communities and data can be weighted to ensure national representation. However, there can be sampling biases in terms of who chooses to participate in a survey. Different modalities (online, phone, or paper) of data collection and the availability of the questionnaire in various languages can influence participation in a survey.
COMMUNITY REPORTING DATA
This collection of selected data incorporates information from community reporting tools such as Stop AAPI Hate and CA vs. Hate. The community reporting data spans from 2020 to 2023 and covers all racial groups, with a particular focus on Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander populations. Community reporting tools allow individuals to report (online or by phone) any form of perceived hate incident or crime.
The strengths of community reporting tools are that they are accessible to community members, collect data in real-time, are available in different languages, and encompass hate incidents beyond the legal definition of hate crimes. However, there are self-selection biases about who chooses to report and wide variation in the definition of hate incidents. Community reporting tools only gather data on those who choose to report but do not capture the full scale or scope of the problem. Community reporting tools are not representative and cannot be generalizable.
GOVERNMENT DATA
This collection of selected data incorporates government agency administrative data from various sources like the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting System, National Incident Based Reporting System, National Crime Victimization Survey, and state-level Department of Justice.
The government agency data spans from 1991 through 2022 and covers all racial groups. The federal definition of a hate crime is one that is “motivated by bias against race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability”; a crime is often a “violent crime such as assault, murder, arson, vandalism or threats to commit such crimes” (U.S. Department of Justice). Law enforcement agencies voluntarily report these crimes to the Uniform Crime Reporting System if they have been investigated with sufficient evidence that proves the hate crimes.
The strength of government agency data is that there is a consistent definition of hate crime to track trends. However, there is a constant issue of underreporting of hate crimes. Individuals are reluctant to report a hate crime to law enforcement agencies due to lack of trust, language barriers, and stigma. If they do, the process requires an official investigation with sufficient evidence to meet the standard definition of a hate crime. Additionally, local law enforcement agencies are not required to report these cases to the Uniform Crime Reporting System, which masks the true prevalence of hate crimes across the country.
Hybrid/Multiple Data Sources
This collection of selected data incorporates information from multiple sources such as government agency data, community reporting tools, and news media. The data spans from 2015 to 2023 and covers all racial groups, with a particular focus on Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander populations.