New York State Reported Hate Crimes 2010

     The map I created using Google Fusion Tables is an interactive map and table showing the number of hate crimes reported per county per 100,000 people in 2010. The map also gives information about the population, actual number of reports and number of arrests for each county. The gradient shows the number of hate crimes reported per 100,000 people where the white counties had zero reported hate crimes in 2010 and the darker the county, the more reports of hate crimes there were per 100,000 people. I made my own table using data from New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services’ 2010 annual reports on hate crimes.
     The definition of a hate crime accord to the NYSDCJS is crimes perpetrated against an individual, a group of individuals, or against public or private property motivated by a bias based on actual or perceived race/ethnicity/national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, or sexual orientation of the victim. Bias motivations for hate crime incidents are identified by the investigating officer. A total of 699 hate crimes were reported in 2010 with the largest number being anti-Jewish, anti-Black and anti-Gay at thirty-one, twenty and sixteen percent respectively. The number of hate crimes is nearly split evenly between New York State and New York City, with 350 reports in the city and 349 reports outside of it.

     Despite the much larger population of the city, the five counties making up New York, with the exception of Richmond County (Staten Island) have a relatively low to normal number of hate crimes reported per 100,000 people, especially when compared to some upstate counties. The reason Upstate counties like Clinton, Oswego and Cortland have such a high rate could be these counties have a relatively low population outside of their main population centers; Plattsburgh, Oswego and Cortland. Each of these cities holds a SUNY campus. Many of the incidents reported were done so on the three campuses.

     Another striking pattern is not only the number of counties without a report of a hate crime, but the specific counties which reported no hate crimes; like Jefferson County. Jefferson is part of the North Country, a stereotypically conservative area, and is home to Fort Drum, one of the largest Army bases in the country. One would think in a city like Watertown which is a relatively small city with an Army demographic, that more hate crimes would have been reported but that is not the case. Oneida is another noticeable outlier. Oneida has an interesting situation where is had a disproportionately high number of refugees and foreign-born population as well as a major Upstate urban center in Utica-Rome. The fact there were no hate crimes reported says something about the open population of Oneida County.