Hate Crimes Data

library(tidyverse)

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✔ lubridate 1.9.4     ✔ tidyr     1.3.2
✔ purrr     1.2.1     
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library(knitr)
setwd("/Users/marieadelegrosso/Desktop/downloads")
hatecrimes <- read_csv("NYPD_Hate_Crimes_19-26.csv")

Rows: 4029 Columns: 14
── Column specification ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Delimiter: ","
chr (9): Record Create Date, Patrol Borough Name, County, Law Code Category ...
dbl (4): Full Complaint ID, Complaint Year Number, Month Number, Complaint P...
lgl (1): Arrest Date

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.

names(hatecrimes) <- tolower(names(hatecrimes))
names(hatecrimes) <- gsub(" ","",names(hatecrimes))
head(hatecrimes)

# A tibble: 6 × 14
  fullcomplaintid complaintyearnumber monthnumber recordcreatedate
            <dbl>               <dbl>       <dbl> <chr>           
1         2.02e14                2019           1 1/23/2019       
2         2.02e14                2019           2 2/25/2019       
3         2.02e14                2019           2 2/27/2019       
4         2.02e14                2019           4 4/16/2019       
5         2.02e14                2019           6 6/20/2019       
6         2.02e14                2019           7 7/31/2019       
# ℹ 10 more variables: complaintprecinctcode <dbl>, patrolboroughname <chr>,
#   county <chr>, lawcodecategorydescription <chr>, offensedescription <chr>,
#   pdcodedescription <chr>, biasmotivedescription <chr>,
#   offensecategory <chr>, arrestdate <lgl>, arrestid <chr>

bias_count <- hatecrimes |>
  select(biasmotivedescription) |>
  group_by(biasmotivedescription) |>
  count() |>
  arrange(desc(n))
head(bias_count)

# A tibble: 6 × 2
# Groups:   biasmotivedescription [6]
  biasmotivedescription          n
  <chr>                      <int>
1 ANTI-JEWISH                 1906
2 ANTI-MALE HOMOSEXUAL (GAY)   489
3 ANTI-ASIAN                   401
4 ANTI-BLACK                   315
5 ANTI-OTHER ETHNICITY         168
6 ANTI-MUSLIM                  156

ggplot(hatecrimes, aes(x = biasmotivedescription))+
  geom_bar()

bias_count |>
  head(10) |>
  ggplot(aes(x=biasmotivedescription, y = n)) +
  geom_col()

bias_count |>
  head(10) |>
  ggplot(aes(x=reorder(biasmotivedescription, n), y = n)) +
  geom_col() +
  coord_flip()

bias_count |>
  head(10) |>
  ggplot(aes(x=reorder(biasmotivedescription, n), y = n)) +
  geom_col(fill = "maroon") +
  coord_flip()+
  labs(x = "",
       y = "Counts of hatecrime types based on motive",
       title = "Bar Graph of Hate Crimes from 2019-2026",
       subtitle = "Counts based on the hatecrime motive",
       caption = "Source: NY State Division of Criminal Justice Services") +
  theme_minimal()

bias_count |>
  head(10) |>
  ggplot(aes(x=reorder(biasmotivedescription, n), y = n)) +
  geom_col(fill = "maroon") +
  coord_flip()+
  labs(x = "",
       y = "Counts of hatecrime types based on motive",
       title = "Bar Graph of Hate Crimes from 2019-2026",
       subtitle = "Counts based on the hatecrime motive",
       caption = "Source: NY State Division of Criminal Justice Services") +
  theme_minimal()+
  geom_text(aes(label = n), hjust = -.05, size = 3) +
  theme(axis.text.x = element_blank())

hate_year <- hatecrimes |>
  filter(biasmotivedescription %in% c("ANTI-JEWISH", "ANTI-MALE HOMOSEXUAL (GAY)", "ANTI-ASIAN", "ANTI-BLACK"))|>
  group_by(complaintyearnumber) |>
  count(biasmotivedescription)|>
  arrange(desc(n))
hate_year

# A tibble: 28 × 3
# Groups:   complaintyearnumber [7]
   complaintyearnumber biasmotivedescription          n
                 <dbl> <chr>                      <int>
 1                2024 ANTI-JEWISH                  371
 2                2023 ANTI-JEWISH                  343
 3                2025 ANTI-JEWISH                  320
 4                2022 ANTI-JEWISH                  279
 5                2019 ANTI-JEWISH                  252
 6                2021 ANTI-JEWISH                  215
 7                2021 ANTI-ASIAN                   150
 8                2020 ANTI-JEWISH                  126
 9                2023 ANTI-MALE HOMOSEXUAL (GAY)   116
10                2022 ANTI-ASIAN                    91
# ℹ 18 more rows

hate2 <- hatecrimes |>
  filter(biasmotivedescription %in% c("ANTI-JEWISH", "ANTI-MALE HOMOSEXUAL (GAY)", "ANTI-ASIAN", "ANTI-BLACK"))|>
  group_by(complaintyearnumber, county) |>
  count(biasmotivedescription)|>
  arrange(desc(n))
hate2

# A tibble: 127 × 4
# Groups:   complaintyearnumber, county [35]
   complaintyearnumber county   biasmotivedescription     n
                 <dbl> <chr>    <chr>                 <int>
 1                2024 KINGS    ANTI-JEWISH             152
 2                2024 NEW YORK ANTI-JEWISH             136
 3                2025 KINGS    ANTI-JEWISH             136
 4                2019 KINGS    ANTI-JEWISH             128
 5                2023 KINGS    ANTI-JEWISH             126
 6                2022 KINGS    ANTI-JEWISH             125
 7                2023 NEW YORK ANTI-JEWISH             124
 8                2025 NEW YORK ANTI-JEWISH             110
 9                2022 NEW YORK ANTI-JEWISH             104
10                2021 NEW YORK ANTI-ASIAN               84
# ℹ 117 more rows

ggplot(data = hate2) +
  geom_bar(aes(x=complaintyearnumber, y=n, fill = biasmotivedescription),
      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")

ggplot(data = hate2) +
  geom_bar(aes(x=county, y=n, fill = biasmotivedescription),
      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")

ggplot(data = hate2) +
  geom_bar(aes(x=complaintyearnumber, y=n, fill = biasmotivedescription),
      position = "dodge", stat = "identity") +
  facet_wrap(~county) +
  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")

setwd("/Users/marieadelegrosso/Downloads")
nypop <- read_csv("nyc_census_pop_2020.csv")

Rows: 62 Columns: 4
── Column specification ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Delimiter: ","
chr (2): Area Name, Population Percent Change
num (2): 2020 Census Population, Population Change

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.

nypop$`Area Name` <- gsub(" County", "", nypop$`Area Name`)
nypop2 <- nypop |>
  rename(county = `Area Name`)|>
  select(county, `2020 Census Population`)
head(nypop2)

# A tibble: 6 × 2
  county      `2020 Census Population`
  <chr>                          <dbl>
1 Albany                        314848
2 Allegany                       46456
3 Bronx                        1472654
4 Broome                        198683
5 Cattaraugus                    77042
6 Cayuga                         76248

datajoin <- left_join(hate2, nypop2, by=c("county"))
datajoin

# A tibble: 127 × 5
# Groups:   complaintyearnumber, county [35]
   complaintyearnumber county biasmotivedescription     n 2020 Census Populati…¹
                 <dbl> <chr>  <chr>                 <int>                  <dbl>
 1                2024 KINGS  ANTI-JEWISH             152                     NA
 2                2024 NEW Y… ANTI-JEWISH             136                     NA
 3                2025 KINGS  ANTI-JEWISH             136                     NA
 4                2019 KINGS  ANTI-JEWISH             128                     NA
 5                2023 KINGS  ANTI-JEWISH             126                     NA
 6                2022 KINGS  ANTI-JEWISH             125                     NA
 7                2023 NEW Y… ANTI-JEWISH             124                     NA
 8                2025 NEW Y… ANTI-JEWISH             110                     NA
 9                2022 NEW Y… ANTI-JEWISH             104                     NA
10                2021 NEW Y… ANTI-ASIAN               84                     NA
# ℹ 117 more rows
# ℹ abbreviated name: ¹​`2020 Census Population`

datajoinrate <- datajoin |>
  mutate(rate = n/`2020 Census Population`* 100000) |>
  arrange(desc(rate))
datajoinrate

# A tibble: 127 × 6
# Groups:   complaintyearnumber, county [35]
   complaintyearnumber county biasmotivedescription     n 2020 Census Populati…¹
                 <dbl> <chr>  <chr>                 <int>                  <dbl>
 1                2024 KINGS  ANTI-JEWISH             152                     NA
 2                2024 NEW Y… ANTI-JEWISH             136                     NA
 3                2025 KINGS  ANTI-JEWISH             136                     NA
 4                2019 KINGS  ANTI-JEWISH             128                     NA
 5                2023 KINGS  ANTI-JEWISH             126                     NA
 6                2022 KINGS  ANTI-JEWISH             125                     NA
 7                2023 NEW Y… ANTI-JEWISH             124                     NA
 8                2025 NEW Y… ANTI-JEWISH             110                     NA
 9                2022 NEW Y… ANTI-JEWISH             104                     NA
10                2021 NEW Y… ANTI-ASIAN               84                     NA
# ℹ 117 more rows
# ℹ abbreviated name: ¹​`2020 Census Population`
# ℹ 1 more variable: rate <dbl>

Short Essay

The hate crime statistics set is fairly accessible and does provide a good amount of additional data (like the type of charge the perpetrator got) which is useful to understand the potential gravity of the situation. That said, the information is incomplete in a manner that could skew numbers. There is no context to show proportionality. It also does not clarify if the individual called in the report or if the police officer made a judgment themselves. One thing I would like to see added is the outcome of the charge (for example, did DA declined prosecute, were the acquitted, etc.). I noted they also miss reported the complaint numbers (which is a common problem with the NYPD) some of these are not accurate. It doesn’t really matter to our data, but it’s a problem.

I am also noting the charges police are providing are some of the most general charges for an arrest. Such as criminal mischief, aggravated harassment, terroristic, threats, etc. The NYCLU has called for increasing the specificity of charges in the past. If someone was not aware of the way these charges are given, they would have a very different idea of the situation.

If I were to look further into the data set, I would track the type of charges that were being given out over time by type of bias motive.

If possible, I would look up the full complaint numbers and look into the outcome of the cases because I think that’s really important.