Honors Theses

Date of Award

Spring 5-7-2022

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Public Policy Leadership

First Advisor

Joseph "Jody" Holland

Second Advisor

Shaio Zerba

Third Advisor

David McElreath

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

This thesis attempts to study and assess potential trends in reported hate crime statistics under the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program database along with hate crime victimizations under the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) during President Obama’s first term (2009-2012) and President Trump’s term (2017-2020). The research question addressed in this study includes: a) What trends are evident during the Obama and Trump administrations regarding hate crimes? To assess potential trends in hate crimes and victimizations, a series of charts and tables were compiled that contain the total number of hate crimes and victimizations during each administration, which is then further broken down into specific crime motivations such as racial, ethnic, or religious-affiliation. The research found that hate crimes during the Obama administration steadily declined, while the hate crimes during the Trump administration steadily increased. Furthermore, this study compares these results with policy actions and rhetoric used by both President Obama and President Trump that could have had an impact on the rate hate crimes were committed throughout the nation.

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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