A publication of the Justice Center	Alaska Justice Statistical Analysis Center

Hate Crimes: An Overview of Numbers and Statutes

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the primary source for national figures on hate or bias offenses. Since 1990 the agency has assembled figures from law enforcement agencies throughout the country and released a summary compilation under the title Hate Crime Statistics. While the FBI assembles data on bias incidents from law enforcement agencies throughout the country, in Alaska only the Anchorage Police Department participates in this reporting program, which is voluntary for police departments; and in fact many participating agencies submitted reports which claimed the occurrence of no incidents showing a bias motivation. This article examines available figures in hate or bias crimes and reveiws existing laws regarding hate crime, both federal and state.

Incidents Revealing Bias: Anchorage, 1999

Anchorage Police Department is the only law enforcement agency in the state currently participating in the FBI hate crime data collection effort. This article describes the five incidents from APD records reported under the FBI protocol as hate crimes in 1999. Hate or bias crimes per se do not exist under Alaska law, and so none of the incidents discussed was charged or prosecuted as a hate crime. In fact, only one of these five incidents described -- an assault case -- resulted in arrests.

Corrections Populations: Mid-2000

The United States now has one of the largest prison populations in the world and incarcerates people at a higher rate than any other country -- 702 persons per 100,000 population were held in prisons and jails at midyear 2000. While Alaska's rate of incarceration is lower than in the nation as a whole—336 per 100,000—its prison population has increased over 70 per cent from 1990 to midyear 2000.