Bias Crimes Report Updated with Gender Identity/Expression

The Committee of Public Safety and the Judiciary, chaired by Phil Mendelson, held a hearing in November 2009 on  "Hate Crimes in the District of Columbia and the Police Response to Reports of Hate Crimes".  GLAA was among the organization that testified at that hearing.  One item discussed at the hearing was that the MPD was not tracking hate crimes in accordance with DC law, but using FBI reporting standards.  As promised, the Office of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) Affairs working with the MPD has released the Bias Crime Report Updated Feb 2010 that contains data broken down by gender identity and expression.

As the report explains:

Under FBI reporting, a hate crime, also known as a bias crime, is a criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin. Crimes categorized as “gender identity/expression” under the DC Code would be reported to the FBI under sexual orientation.

Revised data from the report shows

Type of Bias	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Ethnicity/national origin	1	3	2	2	3
Race	6	8	4	5	2
Religion	7	5	6	0	0
Sexual orientation	29	36	19	26	30
Gender identity / expression	--	--	7	4	5
Disability	0	1	0	0	0
Political affiliation	1	1	1	1	1
Total	44	54	39	38	41