Methodology

As part of the Valparaiso University Community Research and Service Center’s commitment to provide Northwest Indiana relevant information about the community, the CRSC regularly monitors local newspaper accounts for bias motivated incidents.  A bias motivated incident is defined by the anti defamation league as “behavior which constitutes an expression of hostility against the person or property of another because of the victim’s race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin.”    Bias motivated incidents are more inclusive than hate crimes.  A hate crime, according to the FBI, is “a criminal offense committed against a person or property which is motivated in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin.”   The key difference between the two is that one is a criminal offense (hate crime) and the other is an expression of hostility (bias incident), but may not reach the level of criminal activity.

Initially we relied on newspaper accounts of bias motivated incidents only as reported in The Times Online from January 1990 to the current date.    Recently we added articles from the Post Tribune who’s on line search service dates back to January of 2000. We have developed a lengthy list of key words and phrases such as cross burning, swastika, racial slurs, vandalism, Ku Klux Klan, hate crime, racially motivated, etc., that are entered into the search engines of these newspapers in an attempt to find articles about bias motivated incidents.

When an article is discovered that contains one of the key words or phrases, it is carefully read to determine if the story actually is about a bias motivated incident.  Incidents are selected for inclusion in this report if the action described in the article conforms to our definition of a bias incident; that is, did the incident include behavior that was an expression of hostility against a person(s) or property of another because of the victim’s race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin.  In making this judgment, several persons read the account of the event and each independently determines if the event fits the definition.  In order for the event to be included, there needs to be agreement from three researchers that it did fit our definition and is, therefore, a bias related incident. Once the event is determined to be a bias motivated incident, its location, date, a brief description, the particular characteristics of the victim(s) and the perpetrator(s), and an assessment of the severity of the incident are recorded. When compiled, this information allows a determination of the frequency and location of each incident, and in some instances, the characteristics of the victim(s) and perpetrators, the purpose of the attack, and its severity.

Incidents are then put on an interactive map which is included here.  Each incident’s location is indicated by a marker on the map.  When you click on the marker a brief summary of the incident appears.  In all of the articles found in the Times on line, if you click on the number in the left hand corner of the brief description of the incident, it will bring up the original article about the incident.  Incidents included only in the Post Tribune do not have this latter feature because the Post Tribune is accessed by a paid search service and protected by copyright. 
            There were a wide variety of types of activities included among these incidents, but they all seemed to fall into the following seven general categories. 

  1. Cross burning: Incidents in this category include crosses put on the victim’s property. On some occasions the crosses were lit on fire and on others they were not.
  2. Swastika graffiti: Incidents in this category include swastika(s) spray painted somewhere either on a residence, other building or public property.
  3. Bias Motivated Vandalism: Incidents in this category include any other vandalism to a person’s property besides cross burnings and swastika graffiti.  Examples of incidents in this category include smashed windows, spray-painting, and arson.  Some burglaries are in this category because property was damaged in the process of carrying out the burglary.
  4. Bias Motivated Harassment: Incidents in this category include any physical and/or verbal harassment except murder or attempted murder. Shouting racial slurs at a person or assaulting an individual are examples.
  5. Bias Motivated Murder: This category includes all murders and attempted murders.
  6. Bias Motivated Public Demonstrations: These included different types of public demonstrations such as protests, picketing, and rallies.
  7. Ku Klux Klan Activity:  These include Klan rallies, distribution of Klan materials, and Klan related violence.

            Determining severity.   After careful examination of each incident an assessment is made of the severity of the incident.  Each incident is given a number on a scale from 1-5, with 1 being the least severe and 5 the most. As an example, one of the incidents was given a 5 because it included a racially motivated murder.  On the other end of the extreme, an incident was given a 1 that included racial slurs painted on a building.  In this case, it appeared to be an isolated incident not directed an anyone and there was no direct physical violence to a person.
            Despite these procedural safeguards it is clear that any such classification system has shortcomings. Obviously there is no way to assess the psychological distress or emotional strain that the incident inflicts on the victim.  For example, an incident such as a spray painted swastika may not come out as severe on our scale as a burning cross on someone’s lawn, even though the psychological ramifications may be the same.  Needless to say, more work needs to be done in this area.  We simply offer this as a place to begin and hopefully others can suggest methods to refine this analysis.