DOI: 10.3886/icpsr37854.v2
title: Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data: Hate Crime Data (Record-Type Files), United States, 2017
title: Version 2

description: In response to a growing concern about hate crimes, the United States Congress enacted the Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990. The Act requires the attorney general to establish guidelines and collect, as part of the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, data "about crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, including where appropriate the crimes of murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, aggravated assault, simple assault, intimidation, arson, and destruction, damage or vandalism of property." Hate crime data collection was required by the Act to begin in calendar year 1990 and to continue for four successive years. In September 1994, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act amended the Hate Crime Statistics Act to add disabilities, both physical and mental, as factors that could be considered a basis for hate crimes. Although the Act originally mandated data collection for five years, the Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996 amended the collection duration "for each calendar year," making hate crime statistics a permanent addition to the UCR program. As with the other UCR data, law enforcement agencies contribute reports either directly or through their state reporting programs. Information contained in the data includes number of victims and offenders involved in each hate crime incident, type of victims, bias motivation, offense type, and location type.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Batch Header File
DS2: Incident Record File
description: Hate crime incidents reported by law enforcement agencies in the United States. Smallest Geographic Unit: State, county, jurisdiction
description: computer-assisted self interview (CASI); self-enumerated questionnaireThe original hierarchical file has been split into two files: a Batch Header File and an Incident Record File. The Batch Header File contains a record for each law enforcement agency whether or not they reported an incident. The Batch Header File variables are merged into the Incident Record File for those agencies that reported an incident.Each victim-type variable has been split into eight separate flag variables to record each victim type. Previously, the variables were eight-character strings that contained the first letter of each victim type in any order.At the recommendation of the CJIS APB and with the approval of the FBI Director, the FBI UCR Program initiated the collection of rape data under a revised definition and removed the term "forcible" from the offense name in 2013. The changes bring uniformity to the offense in both the Summary Reporting System (SRS) and the NIBRS by capturing data (1) without regard to gender, (2) including penetration of any bodily orifice by any object or body part, and (3) including offenses where physical force is not involved. As a result of this decision, the program renamed the SRS and NIBRS sex offenses - Forcible Rape to Rape, Forcible Sodomy to Sodomy, and Forcible Fondling to Fondling.These studies are 'static data snapshots' of the data available on the FBI website via the Crime Data Explorer, which is continuously updated. For additional information on the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, please visit the UCR website.