FBI Hate Crime Statistics Challenged by KCAVP

Written by Doug Riley

Tuesday, 23 November 2004

Kansas City, MO – The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released its annual 2003 hate crimes report yesterday across the United States. Once again, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people were underreported by only tracking 1,239 incidents. These statistics on anti-lesbian and gay incidents continue to fall far short of the number of incidents tracked in the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs’ (NCAVP) 2003 report on hate violence, which recorded 2,051 incidents in only eleven regions across the nation – more than half of which involved criminal offenses. KCAVP is a member of NCAVP.

Some local law enforcement agencies have made attempts to report anti-gay and lesbian hate crimes such as Lee’s Summit, Peculiar, Lawrence, and Shawnee. However, Kansas City, Missouri—the largest agency in the in the metro--did not report any hate crimes with regard to sexual orientation. Other cities and counties in the metro area did not submit data at all. Additionally, many area colleges who are required to report these hate crimes did not, including the Johnson County Community College, University of Kansas, and the University of Missouri-Columbia. These numbers do not reflect what is happening in the area.

“These statistics show that Kansas City area law enforcement agencies are either not tracking LGBT hate crimes or not recognizing hate crimes as they happen,” said Doug Riley, executive director of the Kansas City Anti-Violence Project. “In 2004, KCAVP has already had five cases reported in the metro area plus other cases in other areas of Missouri. The area law enforcement agencies must acknowledge hate crimes are happening if they intend for the violence to end,” stated Riley.

While the FBI’s statistics both overall and specific to the lesbian, gay and bisexual community (the FBI does not keep statistics on violence targeting people of transgender experience) were unchanged from 2002 to 2003, the number of incidents reported to NCAVP increased 26 percent in the last six months of 2003 – the period just after the Supreme Court’s Lawrence decision and at the start of a call for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

“The fact that the FBI’s statistics continue to dramatically undercount anti-LGBT hate at the same time that this community is experiencing an unprecedented and sustained increase in violence is simply shameful,” said Clarence Patton, NCAVP’s Acting Executive Director. “For NCAVP and its members, which clearly have far fewer resources than the federal government to consistently report more, and more detailed information on hate crimes against LGBT people should truly be a source of embarrassment for the FBI,” continued Patton.

The Kansas City Anti-Violence Project (KCAVP) is a Missouri nonprofit committed to providing services, advocacy and education for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and bias crimes within the metropolitan Kansas City area. For more information about KCAVP, visit http://www.kcavp.org/.

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) addresses the pervasive problem of violence committed against and within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and HIV-positive communities. NCAVP is a coalition of programs that document and advocate for victims of anti-LGBT and anti-HIV/AIDS violence/harassment, domestic violence, sexual assault, police misconduct and other forms of victimization. For more information about NCAVP, visit http://www.ncavp.org/.