Understanding and addressing the gap in hate data collection in Australia

By Matteo Vergani, Steven Chermak, Joshua Freilich

Introduction

In Australia, many have called for the creation of a centralised repository of hate data from law enforcement, human rights commissions and civil society. One of the main reasons why this centralised repository does not exist is that there are different legislative frameworks across different states, and there is no common definition of hate crime throughout the country. Building a centralised repository of data requires the significant investment of resources, political commitment and support from all stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies, human rights agencies and civil society. We propose that the first step towards the creation of a centralised repository of hate in Australia is to build a shared culture among like-minded civil society and government stakeholders around why data collection is crucial to preventing hate and extremism, what data should be collected and how they should be stored in a database.

What are the potential sources of hate data?

Globally, different sources of data are used to map and track trends regarding hate in a country:

• Registers of hate incidents, which can be reported to, or collected by, two types of organizations:
  1. Governmental (for example, law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, human rights agencies and intergovernmental organizations, such as the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and local governments);
  2. Non-governmental (for example, community and watchdog groups that collect complaints from community members, such as the Anti-Defamation Leagueand TellMAMA).
• Survey data, where a sample of the population is asked whether they have been victims of hate crime (for example, victimisation surveys in the USAand in the UK).
• Media, which include mainstream media reports and other data collected from social media (for example, ProPublica’s Documenting Hateor hate maps created using social media data).

The data gap in Australia

In Australia, some organizations collect data from media (such as the Online Hate Prevention Institute), and also some community registers collect reports about hate speech in specific communities (such as the Islamophobia Register). Data collected by these organizations cover some forms of hate for specific time frames, but their data do not cover all forms of hate systematically and consistently because of the lack of resources. Some law enforcement agencies (for example, Victoria Police) and human rights commissions (for example, the VEOHRC) collect information about the motivation of crimes and incidents of discrimination. However, data collection does not take place consistently in all Australian states and territories. Also, data collected by government agencies are particularly limited by barriers to sharing such data with other agencies and gaps in current legislative frameworks, which are reflected in their data collection.

Data collected by both governmental and non-governmental organizations have important limitations, caused by the lack of Australia-wide unified criteria and definitions, under-reporting and a lack of awareness in the communities and the lack of resources allocated to these organizations to cover large geographical areas or verify and code the existing reports.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics does not provide comparative statistics of crimes by motivation; therefore, longitudinal survey data about hate crime and hate incidents are lacking. Some research projects collected data on hate crime in Australia, focusing on specific forms of hate and specifically geographical areas and time frames (see, for example, this publication, based on a survey questionnaire on ethnic crime, with data collected in Brisbane in 2011).

All these organizations and sources of data provide different pieces of the puzzle regarding hatred in Australia. However, these pieces cannot be compared because their data are collected using different criteria and methodologies. It is as if some of these puzzle pieces were circular and others square.

Why do we need to collect hate incident data in order to fight hate?

Data are useful because you cannot tackle what you cannot see, and they are the only instrument we have to monitor and measure the evolution and trends of hatred in society. Conversely, if we can see the problem, we can divert resources to it to reduce it and ensure that it does not become more severe.

In the next video, Prof Steve Chermak discusses the key importance to collect hate crime data, including the fact that offenders often engage into extreme forms of violence, in order to send a message of intimidation to a broader community. As a society, we still don’t know enough about it, because of the lack of systematically collected empirical data.

In the next video, Peter Wertheim AM, co-Chief Executive Officer of ECAJ (Executive Council of Australian Jewry), discusses why it’s important to collect hate incidents data in order to fight hate. Both communities and government organisations can substantially benefit from comprehensive and systematic data collection of hate incidents, and use the data as a powerful tool to bring about change in society and reduce victimisation and its root causes.

Data that about the nature, incidence and trends of hate crimes or hate incidents can be used by a range of government agencies and communities to raise the quality of their work.

The value of data for government organisations

Law enforcement    

• Inform and evaluate policing
• Inform education for police force
• Identify new early warning systems (e.g., when are episodes of hatred early warnings of more serious crime like violent extremism?)

Human rights commissions     

• Advocacy (e.g., legislation change)
• Adapt victim support programs

Government 

• Inform and evaluate policy and programming aimed at tackling hate (e.g., anti-racism programs, focus areas, etc.)
• Inform community awareness and education
• Inform victims support services and responses to serious incidents
• Adapt legislation and sentencing to changing environment (e.g., evolution of thresholds of harm)

The value of data for communities

Advocacy     

• Data allows a community to make an argument about climate/what is happening in their community (both directly and via the media)
• It allows you to advocate, for changes in policy, for greater support, visual policing etc

Improve services to community

• It allows you to create better victim support systems because you accurately understand the issues your community faces
• It provides an alternative to people in your community who may not feel comfortable tor report to police

Improve relationships with institutions  

• Recording incidents allows for follow up with authorities – for more serious incidents
• It allows to ensure reporting is being conducted appropriately
• Track changes in trends so that you can work with police to crack down on specific issues
• It allows you to become a reliable stakeholder to police

What information should be captured when collecting a hate report?

When collecting a hate report, it is important to collect all the information that can be useful in supporting the victim, restoring justice and preventing future harm by empowering victims and communities. The following video from Facing Facts provides a great explanation of the different pieces of information that are necessary during investigation, prosecution and sentencing of a hate crime, with a victim-centered approach. Recording this information is crucial to ensure that justice is restored, and the victims are supported and safe. The video is based on international standards set by the European Court of Human Rights, OSCE, and EU law.

The following videos provide an Australian perspective of what information is captured when reporting a hate incident to a government agency. The Victorian Equal Opportunities and Human Rights Commission collects reports of discrimination, when people are treated unfairly. The objective of the commission is to provide a resolution to the dispute when possible. However, even when people do not know the offender, it’s important to submit the report in order to inform the commission’s work.

In the case of hate crimes, the police will gather evidence. However, it is of great help if the victim (or a witness) can provide as much information as possible about the crime, such as a description of the offender and the reasons why the victim felt the crime was motivated by bias.

Developing an open source hate database

In this section, we will explore how to build an open source database. First, we discuss seven basic steps to building an open source database, where data are exclusively collected from publicly available documents: 1. develop exclusion criteria, 2. identify incidents to include in the database, 3. develop search protocols and collect the data, 4. address measurement issues, 5. code the data, 6. clean the data and 7. perform qualitative and quantitative analyses of the data.

Second, we discuss barriers to building an open source database and their solutions. The ability to study hate using cutting edge methods and the capacity to provide reliable knowledge is limited by barriers, such as definitional issues, access to data and ranking sources of data when they are inconsistent. In the next video, Steven discusses these barriers and some solutions, based on his experience with the Extremist Crime Database.

Third, we discuss what lessons have been learned in building similar databases. Open source databases are extraordinarily valuable for studying rare events, such as extremism and hate crimes. Often, official sources include less information than open sources because they are limited to what the institution collects. Open sources, on the other hand, often provide more information about the context, life course events and other aspects related to the offender, the victim and the incident.

If you want to know more about how to build an open source database of hate and extremism data, we suggest reading Joe Whittaker’s work published by RESOLVE Network in 2019.

Developing and maintaining a database of hate incidents: tips, lessons learned and best practices from Australian civil society organisations

In the next video Julie Nathan, Research Director at the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, discusses tips, tricks and techniques to maintain a high quality hate incidents database. Among other things, Julie discusses inclusion (and exclusion) criteria, sources of data, and examples where coding and counting incidents can be tricky.

In the next video, Dr Derya Iner discusses the methodology used by the Islamophobia Register Australia to build and maintain a database of hate incidents. The Islamophobia register has clear protocols and methods to define and record data, in order to make sure they provide a reliable picture of Islamophobia in Australia.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the writer and activist Erin Chew and the researcher Osmond Chiu initiated a database of hate incidents against Asian Australians. Hundreds of Australians of Asian appearance reported incidents in the first few weeks of its existence. This shows the extent of under-reporting among Asian communities in Australia because during the same period, only a few dozen reports were filed to governmental organizations, such as police forces and human rights organizations. In the next video, Erin explains how they collect data.