Hate Crime Data for the US

As part of our ongoing effort to support President Obama's Open Government Initiative, we have analyzed another informative, albeit disturbing data set from the FBI that we found at Data.gov. Explore the viz below to learn about hate crimes in the United States and the prevalence of certain offenses. The south, once the center of racial inequality and struggle in the United States, has low reported rates of hate crimes.

This data set offers a rare view into the darker corners of American society. As one might expect, the less harshly punished non-violent crimes constitute the bulk of the reported offenses- intimidation and vandalism alone account for well over half of the occurrences. There are some surprises in the data. For instance, simple assault is relatively more common in South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Maine and Vermont- not necessarily states one associates with violent crimes.