averma13 DATA110 Hate Crimes

Author

Adi Ve

Hate Crimes Dataset

Disclaimer, this code is not original, it is taken directly from my professor as an assignment. I have summarized most of the original text as opposed to copying them directly.

Load the libraries

library(tidyverse)
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✔ lubridate 1.9.2     ✔ tidyr     1.3.0
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#tinytex::install_tinytex()
#library(tinytex)
setwd("C:/Users/adive/Downloads")
hatecrimes <- read_csv("hateCrimes2010.csv")
Rows: 423 Columns: 44
── Column specification ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Delimiter: ","
chr  (2): County, Crime Type
dbl (42): Year, Anti-Male, Anti-Female, Anti-Transgender, Anti-Gender Identi...

ℹ Use `spec()` to retrieve the full column specification for this data.
ℹ Specify the column types or set `show_col_types = FALSE` to quiet this message.

Clean the data

names(hatecrimes) <- tolower(names(hatecrimes))
names(hatecrimes) <- gsub(" ","",names(hatecrimes))
head(hatecrimes)
# A tibble: 6 × 44
  county    year crimetype          `anti-male` `anti-female` `anti-transgender`
  <chr>    <dbl> <chr>                    <dbl>         <dbl>              <dbl>
1 Albany    2016 Crimes Against Pe…           0             0                  0
2 Albany    2016 Property Crimes              0             0                  0
3 Allegany  2016 Property Crimes              0             0                  0
4 Bronx     2016 Crimes Against Pe…           0             0                  4
5 Bronx     2016 Property Crimes              0             0                  0
6 Broome    2016 Crimes Against Pe…           0             0                  0
# ℹ 38 more variables: `anti-genderidentityexpression` <dbl>,
#   `anti-age*` <dbl>, `anti-white` <dbl>, `anti-black` <dbl>,
#   `anti-americanindian/alaskannative` <dbl>, `anti-asian` <dbl>,
#   `anti-nativehawaiian/pacificislander` <dbl>,
#   `anti-multi-racialgroups` <dbl>, `anti-otherrace` <dbl>,
#   `anti-jewish` <dbl>, `anti-catholic` <dbl>, `anti-protestant` <dbl>,
#   `anti-islamic(muslim)` <dbl>, `anti-multi-religiousgroups` <dbl>, …

Select only certain hate crimes

summary(hatecrimes)
    county               year       crimetype           anti-male       
 Length:423         Min.   :2010   Length:423         Min.   :0.000000  
 Class :character   1st Qu.:2011   Class :character   1st Qu.:0.000000  
 Mode  :character   Median :2013   Mode  :character   Median :0.000000  
                    Mean   :2013                      Mean   :0.007092  
                    3rd Qu.:2015                      3rd Qu.:0.000000  
                    Max.   :2016                      Max.   :1.000000  
  anti-female      anti-transgender  anti-genderidentityexpression
 Min.   :0.00000   Min.   :0.00000   Min.   :0.00000              
 1st Qu.:0.00000   1st Qu.:0.00000   1st Qu.:0.00000              
 Median :0.00000   Median :0.00000   Median :0.00000              
 Mean   :0.01655   Mean   :0.04728   Mean   :0.05674              
 3rd Qu.:0.00000   3rd Qu.:0.00000   3rd Qu.:0.00000              
 Max.   :1.00000   Max.   :5.00000   Max.   :3.00000              
   anti-age*         anti-white        anti-black    
 Min.   :0.00000   Min.   : 0.0000   Min.   : 0.000  
 1st Qu.:0.00000   1st Qu.: 0.0000   1st Qu.: 0.000  
 Median :0.00000   Median : 0.0000   Median : 1.000  
 Mean   :0.05201   Mean   : 0.3357   Mean   : 1.761  
 3rd Qu.:0.00000   3rd Qu.: 0.0000   3rd Qu.: 2.000  
 Max.   :9.00000   Max.   :11.0000   Max.   :18.000  
 anti-americanindian/alaskannative   anti-asian    
 Min.   :0.000000                  Min.   :0.0000  
 1st Qu.:0.000000                  1st Qu.:0.0000  
 Median :0.000000                  Median :0.0000  
 Mean   :0.007092                  Mean   :0.1773  
 3rd Qu.:0.000000                  3rd Qu.:0.0000  
 Max.   :1.000000                  Max.   :8.0000  
 anti-nativehawaiian/pacificislander anti-multi-racialgroups anti-otherrace
 Min.   :0                           Min.   :0.00000         Min.   :0     
 1st Qu.:0                           1st Qu.:0.00000         1st Qu.:0     
 Median :0                           Median :0.00000         Median :0     
 Mean   :0                           Mean   :0.08511         Mean   :0     
 3rd Qu.:0                           3rd Qu.:0.00000         3rd Qu.:0     
 Max.   :0                           Max.   :3.00000         Max.   :0     
  anti-jewish     anti-catholic     anti-protestant   anti-islamic(muslim)
 Min.   : 0.000   Min.   : 0.0000   Min.   :0.00000   Min.   : 0.0000     
 1st Qu.: 0.000   1st Qu.: 0.0000   1st Qu.:0.00000   1st Qu.: 0.0000     
 Median : 0.000   Median : 0.0000   Median :0.00000   Median : 0.0000     
 Mean   : 3.981   Mean   : 0.2695   Mean   :0.02364   Mean   : 0.4704     
 3rd Qu.: 3.000   3rd Qu.: 0.0000   3rd Qu.:0.00000   3rd Qu.: 0.0000     
 Max.   :82.000   Max.   :12.0000   Max.   :1.00000   Max.   :10.0000     
 anti-multi-religiousgroups anti-atheism/agnosticism
 Min.   : 0.00000           Min.   :0               
 1st Qu.: 0.00000           1st Qu.:0               
 Median : 0.00000           Median :0               
 Mean   : 0.07565           Mean   :0               
 3rd Qu.: 0.00000           3rd Qu.:0               
 Max.   :10.00000           Max.   :0               
 anti-religiouspracticegenerally anti-otherreligion anti-buddhist
 Min.   :0.000000                Min.   :0.000      Min.   :0    
 1st Qu.:0.000000                1st Qu.:0.000      1st Qu.:0    
 Median :0.000000                Median :0.000      Median :0    
 Mean   :0.007092                Mean   :0.104      Mean   :0    
 3rd Qu.:0.000000                3rd Qu.:0.000      3rd Qu.:0    
 Max.   :2.000000                Max.   :4.000      Max.   :0    
 anti-easternorthodox(greek,russian,etc.)   anti-hindu      
 Min.   :0.000000                         Min.   :0.000000  
 1st Qu.:0.000000                         1st Qu.:0.000000  
 Median :0.000000                         Median :0.000000  
 Mean   :0.002364                         Mean   :0.002364  
 3rd Qu.:0.000000                         3rd Qu.:0.000000  
 Max.   :1.000000                         Max.   :1.000000  
 anti-jehovahswitness  anti-mormon anti-otherchristian   anti-sikh
 Min.   :0            Min.   :0    Min.   :0.00000     Min.   :0  
 1st Qu.:0            1st Qu.:0    1st Qu.:0.00000     1st Qu.:0  
 Median :0            Median :0    Median :0.00000     Median :0  
 Mean   :0            Mean   :0    Mean   :0.01655     Mean   :0  
 3rd Qu.:0            3rd Qu.:0    3rd Qu.:0.00000     3rd Qu.:0  
 Max.   :0            Max.   :0    Max.   :3.00000     Max.   :0  
 anti-hispanic       anti-arab       anti-otherethnicity/nationalorigin
 Min.   : 0.0000   Min.   :0.00000   Min.   : 0.0000                   
 1st Qu.: 0.0000   1st Qu.:0.00000   1st Qu.: 0.0000                   
 Median : 0.0000   Median :0.00000   Median : 0.0000                   
 Mean   : 0.3735   Mean   :0.06619   Mean   : 0.2837                   
 3rd Qu.: 0.0000   3rd Qu.:0.00000   3rd Qu.: 0.0000                   
 Max.   :17.0000   Max.   :2.00000   Max.   :19.0000                   
 anti-non-hispanic*  anti-gaymale    anti-gayfemale   anti-gay(maleandfemale)
 Min.   :0          Min.   : 0.000   Min.   :0.0000   Min.   :0.0000         
 1st Qu.:0          1st Qu.: 0.000   1st Qu.:0.0000   1st Qu.:0.0000         
 Median :0          Median : 0.000   Median :0.0000   Median :0.0000         
 Mean   :0          Mean   : 1.499   Mean   :0.2411   Mean   :0.1017         
 3rd Qu.:0          3rd Qu.: 1.000   3rd Qu.:0.0000   3rd Qu.:0.0000         
 Max.   :0          Max.   :36.000   Max.   :8.0000   Max.   :4.0000         
 anti-heterosexual  anti-bisexual      anti-physicaldisability
 Min.   :0.000000   Min.   :0.000000   Min.   :0.00000        
 1st Qu.:0.000000   1st Qu.:0.000000   1st Qu.:0.00000        
 Median :0.000000   Median :0.000000   Median :0.00000        
 Mean   :0.002364   Mean   :0.004728   Mean   :0.01182        
 3rd Qu.:0.000000   3rd Qu.:0.000000   3rd Qu.:0.00000        
 Max.   :1.000000   Max.   :1.000000   Max.   :1.00000        
 anti-mentaldisability totalincidents    totalvictims    totaloffenders  
 Min.   :0.000000      Min.   :  1.00   Min.   :  1.00   Min.   :  1.00  
 1st Qu.:0.000000      1st Qu.:  1.00   1st Qu.:  1.00   1st Qu.:  1.00  
 Median :0.000000      Median :  3.00   Median :  3.00   Median :  3.00  
 Mean   :0.009456      Mean   : 10.09   Mean   : 10.48   Mean   : 11.77  
 3rd Qu.:0.000000      3rd Qu.: 10.00   3rd Qu.: 10.00   3rd Qu.: 11.00  
 Max.   :1.000000      Max.   :101.00   Max.   :106.00   Max.   :113.00

Filter for 9 or more hate crimes

hatecrimes2 <- hatecrimes |>
  select(county, year, 'anti-black', 'anti-white', 'anti-jewish', 'anti-catholic','anti-age*','anti-islamic(muslim)', `anti-multi-religiousgroups`, 'anti-gaymale', 'anti-hispanic', `anti-otherethnicity/nationalorigin`) |>
  group_by(county, year)
head(hatecrimes2)
# A tibble: 6 × 12
# Groups:   county, year [4]
  county    year `anti-black` `anti-white` `anti-jewish` `anti-catholic`
  <chr>    <dbl>        <dbl>        <dbl>         <dbl>           <dbl>
1 Albany    2016            1            0             0               0
2 Albany    2016            2            0             0               0
3 Allegany  2016            1            0             0               0
4 Bronx     2016            0            1             0               0
5 Bronx     2016            0            1             1               0
6 Broome    2016            1            0             0               0
# ℹ 6 more variables: `anti-age*` <dbl>, `anti-islamic(muslim)` <dbl>,
#   `anti-multi-religiousgroups` <dbl>, `anti-gaymale` <dbl>,
#   `anti-hispanic` <dbl>, `anti-otherethnicity/nationalorigin` <dbl>

Ensure there are no missing values

dim(hatecrimes2)
[1] 423  12
summary(hatecrimes2)
    county               year        anti-black       anti-white     
 Length:423         Min.   :2010   Min.   : 0.000   Min.   : 0.0000  
 Class :character   1st Qu.:2011   1st Qu.: 0.000   1st Qu.: 0.0000  
 Mode  :character   Median :2013   Median : 1.000   Median : 0.0000  
                    Mean   :2013   Mean   : 1.761   Mean   : 0.3357  
                    3rd Qu.:2015   3rd Qu.: 2.000   3rd Qu.: 0.0000  
                    Max.   :2016   Max.   :18.000   Max.   :11.0000  
  anti-jewish     anti-catholic       anti-age*       anti-islamic(muslim)
 Min.   : 0.000   Min.   : 0.0000   Min.   :0.00000   Min.   : 0.0000     
 1st Qu.: 0.000   1st Qu.: 0.0000   1st Qu.:0.00000   1st Qu.: 0.0000     
 Median : 0.000   Median : 0.0000   Median :0.00000   Median : 0.0000     
 Mean   : 3.981   Mean   : 0.2695   Mean   :0.05201   Mean   : 0.4704     
 3rd Qu.: 3.000   3rd Qu.: 0.0000   3rd Qu.:0.00000   3rd Qu.: 0.0000     
 Max.   :82.000   Max.   :12.0000   Max.   :9.00000   Max.   :10.0000     
 anti-multi-religiousgroups  anti-gaymale    anti-hispanic    
 Min.   : 0.00000           Min.   : 0.000   Min.   : 0.0000  
 1st Qu.: 0.00000           1st Qu.: 0.000   1st Qu.: 0.0000  
 Median : 0.00000           Median : 0.000   Median : 0.0000  
 Mean   : 0.07565           Mean   : 1.499   Mean   : 0.3735  
 3rd Qu.: 0.00000           3rd Qu.: 1.000   3rd Qu.: 0.0000  
 Max.   :10.00000           Max.   :36.000   Max.   :17.0000  
 anti-otherethnicity/nationalorigin
 Min.   : 0.0000                   
 1st Qu.: 0.0000                   
 Median : 0.0000                   
 Mean   : 0.2837                   
 3rd Qu.: 0.0000                   
 Max.   :19.0000

Convert from wide to long format

hatelong <- hatecrimes2 |> 
    pivot_longer(
        cols = 3:12,
        names_to = "victim_cat",
        values_to = "crimecount")

Create Facet Plot

hatecrimeplot <-hatelong |> 
  ggplot(aes(year, crimecount))+
  geom_point()+
  aes(color = victim_cat)+
  facet_wrap(~victim_cat)
hatecrimeplot

Dig deeper into top 3 frequency groups

hatenew <- hatelong |>
  filter( victim_cat %in% c("anti-black", "anti-jewish", "anti-gaymale"))|>
  group_by(year, county) |>
  arrange(desc(crimecount))
hatenew
# A tibble: 1,269 × 4
# Groups:   year, county [277]
   county   year victim_cat  crimecount
   <chr>   <dbl> <chr>            <dbl>
 1 Kings    2012 anti-jewish         82
 2 Kings    2016 anti-jewish         51
 3 Suffolk  2014 anti-jewish         48
 4 Suffolk  2012 anti-jewish         48
 5 Kings    2011 anti-jewish         44
 6 Kings    2013 anti-jewish         41
 7 Kings    2010 anti-jewish         39
 8 Nassau   2011 anti-jewish         38
 9 Suffolk  2013 anti-jewish         37
10 Nassau   2016 anti-jewish         36
# ℹ 1,259 more rows

Plot top 3 groups next to each other

plot2 <- hatenew |>
  ggplot() +
  geom_bar(aes(x=year, y=crimecount, fill = victim_cat),
      position = "dodge", stat = "identity") +
  labs(fill = "Hate Crime Type",
       y = "Number of Hate Crime Incidents",
       title = "Hate Crime Type in NY Counties Between 2010-2016",
       caption = "Source: NY State Division of Criminal Justice Services")
plot2

Dissect by county

plot3 <- hatenew |>
  ggplot() +
  geom_bar(aes(x=county, y=crimecount, fill = victim_cat),
      position = "dodge", stat = "identity") +
  labs(fill = "Hate Crime Type",
       y = "Number of Hate Crime Incidents",
       title = "Hate Crime Type in NY Counties Between 2010-2016",
       caption = "Source: NY State Division of Criminal Justice Services")
plot3

sooooo many counties…

counties <- hatenew |>
  group_by(year, county)|>
  summarize(sum = sum(crimecount)) |>
  arrange(desc(sum))
`summarise()` has grouped output by 'year'. You can override using the
`.groups` argument.
counties
# A tibble: 277 × 3
# Groups:   year [7]
    year county     sum
   <dbl> <chr>    <dbl>
 1  2012 Kings      136
 2  2010 Kings      110
 3  2016 Kings      101
 4  2013 Kings       96
 5  2014 Kings       94
 6  2015 Kings       90
 7  2011 Kings       86
 8  2016 New York    86
 9  2012 Suffolk     83
10  2013 New York    75
# ℹ 267 more rows

Filter to the 5 counties with the highest hatecrime rates

counties2 <- hatenew |>
  group_by(county)|>
  summarize(sum = sum(crimecount)) |>
  slice_max(order_by = sum, n=5)
counties2
# A tibble: 5 × 2
  county     sum
  <chr>    <dbl>
1 Kings      713
2 New York   459
3 Suffolk    360
4 Nassau     298
5 Queens     235

Make a barplot for these counties

plot4 <- hatenew |>
  filter(county %in% c("Kings", "New York", "Suffolk", "Nassau", "Queens")) |>
  ggplot() +
  geom_bar(aes(x=county, y=crimecount, fill = victim_cat),
      position = "dodge", stat = "identity") +
  labs(y = "Number of Hate Crime Incidents",
       title = "5 Counties in NY with Highest Incidents of Hate Crimes",
       subtitle = "Between 2010-2016", 
       fill = "Hate Crime Type",
      caption = "Source: NY State Division of Criminal Justice Services")
plot4

Read in census data for the populations of NY counties

setwd("C:/Users/adive/Downloads")
nypop <- read_csv("newyorkpopulation.csv")
Rows: 62 Columns: 8
── Column specification ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Delimiter: ","
chr (1): Geography
dbl (7): 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016

ℹ Use `spec()` to retrieve the full column specification for this data.
ℹ Specify the column types or set `show_col_types = FALSE` to quiet this message.

Rename the variable geography to county so it matches the other dataset

nypop$Geography <- gsub(" , New York", "", nypop$Geography)
nypop$Geography <- gsub("County", "", nypop$Geography)
nypoplong <- nypop |>
  rename(county = Geography) |>
  gather("year", "population", 2:8) 
nypoplong$year <- as.double(nypoplong$year)
head(nypoplong)
# A tibble: 6 × 3
  county                  year population
  <chr>                  <dbl>      <dbl>
1 Albany , New York       2010     304078
2 Allegany , New York     2010      48949
3 Bronx , New York        2010    1388240
4 Broome , New York       2010     200469
5 Cattaraugus , New York  2010      80249
6 Cayuga , New York       2010      79844

Clean the county names

nypoplong12 <- nypoplong |>
  filter(year == 2012) |>
  arrange(desc(population)) |>
  head(10)
nypoplong12$county<-gsub(" , New York","",nypoplong12$county)
nypoplong12
# A tibble: 10 × 3
   county       year population
   <chr>       <dbl>      <dbl>
 1 Kings        2012    2572282
 2 Queens       2012    2278024
 3 New York     2012    1625121
 4 Suffolk      2012    1499382
 5 Bronx        2012    1414774
 6 Nassau       2012    1350748
 7 Westchester  2012     961073
 8 Erie         2012     920792
 9 Monroe       2012     748947
10 Richmond     2012     470978

Filter to just 2012

counties12 <- counties |>
  filter(year == 2012) |>
  arrange(desc(sum)) 
counties12
# A tibble: 41 × 3
# Groups:   year [1]
    year county        sum
   <dbl> <chr>       <dbl>
 1  2012 Kings         136
 2  2012 Suffolk        83
 3  2012 New York       71
 4  2012 Nassau         48
 5  2012 Queens         48
 6  2012 Erie           28
 7  2012 Bronx          23
 8  2012 Richmond       18
 9  2012 Multiple       14
10  2012 Westchester    13
# ℹ 31 more rows
# A tibble: 41 × 3

Join hate crimes data with the population data

datajoin <- counties12 |>
  full_join(nypoplong12, by=c("county", "year"))
datajoin
# A tibble: 41 × 4
# Groups:   year [1]
    year county        sum population
   <dbl> <chr>       <dbl>      <dbl>
 1  2012 Kings         136    2572282
 2  2012 Suffolk        83    1499382
 3  2012 New York       71    1625121
 4  2012 Nassau         48    1350748
 5  2012 Queens         48    2278024
 6  2012 Erie           28     920792
 7  2012 Bronx          23    1414774
 8  2012 Richmond       18     470978
 9  2012 Multiple       14         NA
10  2012 Westchester    13     961073
# ℹ 31 more rows

Calculate the incidents per 100,000 people then arrange in decreasing order

datajoinrate <- datajoin |>
  mutate(rate = sum/population*100000) |>
  arrange(desc(rate))
datajoinrate
# A tibble: 41 × 5
# Groups:   year [1]
    year county        sum population  rate
   <dbl> <chr>       <dbl>      <dbl> <dbl>
 1  2012 Suffolk        83    1499382 5.54 
 2  2012 Kings         136    2572282 5.29 
 3  2012 New York       71    1625121 4.37 
 4  2012 Richmond       18     470978 3.82 
 5  2012 Nassau         48    1350748 3.55 
 6  2012 Erie           28     920792 3.04 
 7  2012 Queens         48    2278024 2.11 
 8  2012 Bronx          23    1414774 1.63 
 9  2012 Westchester    13     961073 1.35 
10  2012 Monroe          5     748947 0.668
# ℹ 31 more rows

Note that the highest rates of hate crimes happened in these counties:

dt <- datajoinrate[,c("county","rate")]

Follow (aggregating by some categories)

aggregategroups <- hatecrimes |>
  pivot_longer(
    cols = 4:44,
    names_to = "victim_cat",
    values_to = "crimecount"
  )
unique(aggregategroups$victim_cat)
 [1] "anti-male"                               
 [2] "anti-female"                             
 [3] "anti-transgender"                        
 [4] "anti-genderidentityexpression"           
 [5] "anti-age*"                               
 [6] "anti-white"                              
 [7] "anti-black"                              
 [8] "anti-americanindian/alaskannative"       
 [9] "anti-asian"                              
[10] "anti-nativehawaiian/pacificislander"     
[11] "anti-multi-racialgroups"                 
[12] "anti-otherrace"                          
[13] "anti-jewish"                             
[14] "anti-catholic"                           
[15] "anti-protestant"                         
[16] "anti-islamic(muslim)"                    
[17] "anti-multi-religiousgroups"              
[18] "anti-atheism/agnosticism"                
[19] "anti-religiouspracticegenerally"         
[20] "anti-otherreligion"                      
[21] "anti-buddhist"                           
[22] "anti-easternorthodox(greek,russian,etc.)"
[23] "anti-hindu"                              
[24] "anti-jehovahswitness"                    
[25] "anti-mormon"                             
[26] "anti-otherchristian"                     
[27] "anti-sikh"                               
[28] "anti-hispanic"                           
[29] "anti-arab"                               
[30] "anti-otherethnicity/nationalorigin"      
[31] "anti-non-hispanic*"                      
[32] "anti-gaymale"                            
[33] "anti-gayfemale"                          
[34] "anti-gay(maleandfemale)"                 
[35] "anti-heterosexual"                       
[36] "anti-bisexual"                           
[37] "anti-physicaldisability"                 
[38] "anti-mentaldisability"                   
[39] "totalincidents"                          
[40] "totalvictims"                            
[41] "totaloffenders"

Subset of anti-lgbtq hate crimes

lgbtq <- hatecrimes |>
  pivot_longer(
      cols = 4:44,
      names_to = "victim_cat",
      values_to = "crimecount") |>
filter(victim_cat %in% c("anti-transgender", "anti-gayfemale", "anti-gendervictim_catendityexpression", "anti-gaymale", "anti-gay(maleandfemale", "anti-bisexual"))
lgbtq
# A tibble: 1,692 × 5
   county    year crimetype              victim_cat       crimecount
   <chr>    <dbl> <chr>                  <chr>                 <dbl>
 1 Albany    2016 Crimes Against Persons anti-transgender          0
 2 Albany    2016 Crimes Against Persons anti-gaymale              1
 3 Albany    2016 Crimes Against Persons anti-gayfemale            0
 4 Albany    2016 Crimes Against Persons anti-bisexual             0
 5 Albany    2016 Property Crimes        anti-transgender          0
 6 Albany    2016 Property Crimes        anti-gaymale              0
 7 Albany    2016 Property Crimes        anti-gayfemale            0
 8 Albany    2016 Property Crimes        anti-bisexual             0
 9 Allegany  2016 Property Crimes        anti-transgender          0
10 Allegany  2016 Property Crimes        anti-gaymale              0
# ℹ 1,682 more rows

So what does all of this mean?

Important findings:

  1. I wonder what the data would look like if there was a universally accepted requirement for this type of data collection.

  2. The Bronx appears to have much lower than expected incidents of hate crimes relative to its population density in comparison to other NY counties.

  3. In Kings County, NY (which is home to Brooklyn; according to Wikipedia, it is New York’s most populous borough and the second most densely populated county in the US) in 2012, there was a spike in hate crimes against Jews.

  4. All of these findings are corroborated in Hate Crime in New York State 2012 Annual Report: https://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/crimnet/ojsa/hate-crime-in-nys-2012-annual-report.pdf

My Comments

There are a couple good things about this dataset. I appreciated that it differentiates the hate crimes between property crimes and crimes against individuals, because this would be helpful for assessing direct safety risks as a subset of the data. It is also convenient that the total incidents, victims, and offenders are given, but also provides new information when considering that multiple offenders or victims may be involved in a single hate crime. The dataset also has a very wide variety of classifications for the hate crimes based on religious groups and identities. As highlighted in class, one of the greatest flaws with this dataset is that there is little to no standardization for the reporting of hate crimes. While any crime which ends up being ruled as a hate crime is required to be reported for data collection, there is no guarantee that all crimes which meet the poorly defined and non-standard criteria for hate crimes will even be classified as such. This is a big problem because it introduces massive bias into the reporting based on cultural phenomena of policing and misrepresentation of crimes. This may not be a flaw in the dataset, but I also did not understand the meaning of the anti-gay (male and female) category, because it did not seem to be a sum of the anti-gay male and anti-gay female incidences, but something entirely different.

One path I would like to study about this dataset is the relationship between the hate crime target group (anti-____) and the type of hate crime (against property or against persons). This to me is important because it could provide information about the groups which are most susceptible to bigoted and hateful symbology in public and the groups which are most susceptible to interpersonal hate. Obviously, however, these results would be highly biased due to the poor reporting. Another path I would like to study about this data set is the number of crimes against a target group as a rate to the estimated population of that specific group in each county. Data about the populations of each group in different counties would be very hard to find and could definitely be unreliable, or may not have been collected in every year, but instead this analysis could be generalized to the state as a whole as opposed to each county. My idea is that rather than dividing by the population of each county, dividing by the counts of each group would give an idea of how many hate crimes are happening per person of the target group, or, how at-risk certain populations are. This is important because if there are only 100 transgender people in a certain county, there may not be a high incidence per total population if there were only 5 anti-transgender hate crimes (for example), but in terms of the target group itself, 1/20 members of the group may have been victims of hate crimes (assuming you filter for crimes against persons). All this is to say, it may be revealing of disproportionalities in the hate crimes received by certain groups vs. their population.

One thing I would do to follow up after seeing the output is to review the Hate Crime in New York State 2012 Annual Report to see if the results were corroborated with the report or if there were any discrepancies. Another thing I would do is to research the criteria of hate crime classifications and review any relevant literature on under-reporting or misrepresentation of cases. It is important to thoroughly understand the sources of error and bias in your data before, while, and after making conclusions.