A Closer Look at “When”
Looking at when hate crimes occur to understand why
The Five Ws: Who What Where When Why are questions one should ask in the process of information gathering and problem solving.
Our main research question is to understand Why Hate crimes occur. Because our data is limited, we must look for Why in the other Four Ws.
We took a closer look at the When to try to identify patterns. Our data includes the year, month, and day a crime occurs. From the date we try to extract as much information as possible.
Which days of the week do hate crimes occur?
R has a rather convenient weekdays() function which allows you to extract the day of the week from a date.
We found that in general, fewer crimes occur on Sundays while more crimes occur in Fridays followed by Saturdays.
However, more information can be found by looking at the effect of variables. We saw that certain crimes such as vandalism, robbery, assault increase on weekends; while other crimes such as theft, intimidation, and drug/weapon violations decrease on weekends.
The locations on hate crimes have a distinct pattern as well. On weekends, crime at college/universities, public service, and daycare/school drop steeply; while increasing at residence/home, streets, and bars/nightclubs.
The victims targeted also show distinct trends depending on day of week. Crime against African Americans is higher on Fridays and lowest on Sunday. A similar pattern is seen for Anti-Jewish and Anti-White crimes. On the other hand, crime against LGBT is highest on Sundays. Anti-Other Christian crimes are also frequently occurring on Sundays.
Which months are hate crimes more common?
Hate crimes occur more in warmer months it seems, aside from crimes at colleges/universities. However, offenders noted for multiple bias seem to care less as to how the weather is. Multiple offenders (not multiple bias) follow a similar pattern as single offenders.
Which days of the year do hate crimes occur?
Hate crimes tend to occur on the first day of each month! Fewer crimes are observed on the 31st mostly because there are fewer months with 31 days.
Other interesting observations: Hate crime is on average lowest on Christmas, and dips a bit around Thanksgiving and on Valentines Day as well. Hate crime is highest around Halloween, and higher around New Years.
Any correlation between number of hate crime and major events?
We have already seen that there is a spike in hate crimes following 9/11. Are there any other major events in history that have a similar effect?
Aside from the peak on September 11, 2001; we find another spike on May 01, 1992. After some research we find that May 1, 1992 was around the time of the Los Angeles Riots which lasted from April 29 — May 3, 1992. The LA Riots were a series of riots and civil disturbances in response to the acquittal of four officers for excessive usage of force in the arrest of Rodney King, an African American man.
There are smaller peaks for hate crime on November 15, 2016 (the day after a super moon on November 14, 2016) and June 29, 2003 (couldn’t find any related news). Other peaks are on the Halloween of each year.
We took a closer look at hate crimes and major events for regions of the US: Midwest, Northeast, South, West.
Midwest
We see pronounced response and increase in hates crimes following the LA Riots. In particular, on May 02, 1992 there are many anti-white hate crimes.
Northeast
We see a response to the 9/11 attacks. On February 14, 2004, there are multiple anti-Jewish crime in Bridgewater New Jersey. The increase in hate crimes on Halloweens of each year are most pronounced in the Northeast.
South
We see pronounced response and increase in hates crimes following 9/11 and LA Riots in the South. Other peaks are Aug 21, 1992 and July 04, 1998 (most likely multiple attacks by a hate group)
West
We see the most pronounced response and increase in hates crimes following 9/11 in the West.
Summary
- Depending on day of the week, there are distinct pattern in types of hate crimes and where they take place
- Hate crimes are more common in the warmer months
- Hate crimes are more likely to occur on the first day of every month
- Hate crime rate is lower on certain holidays such as Christmas and Thanksgiving
- Major US events for hate crime are the 9/11 attack and LA Riots
- Americans take Halloween very seriously (especially in the Northeast)
