Evaluation of the Nationally Standardized Data Collection Strategy on Hate-Motivated Crime

1. Introduction

1.1. Introduction and purpose of evaluation

This report presents the results of the evaluation of the Nationally Standardized Data Collection Strategy on Hate-Motivated Crime (the Data Collection Strategy). The data collection was undertaken by Government Consulting Services (GCS) for Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) between January and March, 2010. The evaluation was conducted to inform future management decisions related to the Data Collection Strategy, and to feed into a horizontal evaluation of Canada’s Action Plan Against Racism (CAPAR), of which the Strategy is a part.

The report is organized into four main sections.

  • Section 1 presents a profile of the Data Collection Strategy;
  • Section 2 presents the methodology for the evaluation and discusses methodological considerations;
  • Section 3 presents the findings, organized by theme; and
  • Section 4 presents the overall conclusions.

This report is accompanied by a supplemental document which contains the appendices cited throughout this report.

1.2. Profile of the Nationally Standardized Data Collection Strategy on Hate-Motivated Crime

1.2.1. Context and objectives

The Data Collection Strategy was originally funded as part of CAPAR, beginning in 2004-2005.Footnote 1 CAPAR seeks to contribute to the elimination of racism and the achievement of equitable socio-economic outcomes for all Canadians by:

  • strengthening social cohesion through anti-racism measures;
  • enhancing the implementation of Canada’s human rights and diversity frameworks; and
  • demonstrating federal government leadership in eliminating racism.

Its goals are to help ensure that: all Canadians are included and have a role in Canadian society and the Canadian economy regardless of background, race or ethnicity; all barriers to full and active participation and opportunity are eliminated; and the justice system is equipped to respond to overt manifestations of racism in society. As part of CAPAR, several federal departments are involved in a series of initiatives and strategies that aim to contribute to the elimination of racism and the achievement of equitable socio-economic outcomes for all.

When launched under CAPAR, the Data Collection Strategy was managed by the Multiculturalism Branch of the Department of Canadian Heritage. The Branch, and responsibility for the Initiative, was transferred to CIC in October 2008. The key objectives of the Data Collection Strategy are to:

  • raise awareness of police to reliably identify and report hate-motivated crime in a manner that is consistent with national reporting standards;
  • enhance police service preparedness to report incidents of hate-motivated crime;
  • improve understanding of the nature and extent of hate-motivated crime and the response of the justice system; and
  • enable monitoring of the impact of societal and legislative changes on this type of crime.

Hate-motivated crime (or “hate crime”) is defined by Statistics Canada (STC) and police services as “a criminal violation motivated by hate, based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation or any other similar factor.”Footnote 2

1.2.2. Delivery approach

CIC has a Letter of Agreement (LOA) with the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS), STC to undertake work under the Data Collection Strategy. The mandate of CCJS is to provide information to the justice community as well as the public on criminal and civil justice in Canada. Through the Data Collection Strategy, CCJS has undertaken the following major activities specifically related to hate-motivated crime:

  • developed standardized police-approved definitions related to hate-motivated crime;
  • created training materials and delivered on-site training to police services across Canada (training provides police services with information related to the benefits of collecting hate crime data, investigation indicators for police, and how to report data in a standardized manner, among other topics);
  • compiled data on hate crime reported by police services and verified and performed quality control on the data, in collaboration with police services (following CCJS’s quality assurance protocols, data submissions are sent back to each police service for final sign-off);
  • provided assistance and support to police services on hate crime reporting through telephone and e-mail; and
  • developed reports on hate crime in Canada and made data and reports available to stakeholders on the STC website.

At CCJS, the Data Collection Strategy is primarily delivered by two staff members: a senior analyst, who undertakes and supervises data compilation, validation, and analysis; and a training officer, who delivers training and support to police services across Canada. Other CCJS resources provide additional management and delivery support as needed.

As per its responsibilities under its LOA, CCJS provides annual project reports to CIC, which specify all activities undertaken for the Strategy (e.g., number of training sessions provided, number of services participating). This information is, in turn, used by CIC as part of its reporting commitments for CAPAR.

CCJS was provided with operations and maintenance (O&M) funding from CIC to administer the Data Collection Strategy, in amounts set out in annual LOAs between the two organizations. Between 2005-2006 and 2009-2010, CIC provided CCJS with $1.66 million for the Data Collection Strategy (Table 1.1).Footnote 3 Information from CIC indicates that CCJS will continue to receive $200,000 per year for the Strategy over the next five years from the Citizenship and Multiculturalism Branch budget.

Table 1-1: Funding provided from CIC to CCJS for the delivery of the Data Collection Strategy (2005-2006 to 2009-2010)
Fiscal Year Amount
2005-2006 $510,500
2006-2007 $300,000
2007-2008 $400,000
2008-2009 $250,000
2009-2010 $200,000
Total $1,660,500

1.2.3. Reporting of hate crime data

Police services participating in the Data Collection Strategy report hate crime data to CCJS through one of two methods:

Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, Version 2.2 (UCR 2.2): is an annual survey that extracts administrative data from police services’ existing electronic records management systems. UCR 2.2 was an add-on to a system that was already in place to collect other crime statistics. The existing Uniform Crime Reporting Survey collects data on a wide range of criminal offences such as homicides, robberies, theft and fraud.Footnote 4 Hate crime data can only be collected through UCR 2.2, which also provides data related to cyber-crime, organized crime, and other variables submitted to CCJS as part of crime data reporting by police services.

Supplemental Survey: for those participating police services that report UCR2 data but who have not updated to the newer UCR 2.2 version, data on hate crime were collected by CCJS in 2006, 2007, and 2008 from police services through a supplemental hate crime survey. These police services were asked to identify those criminal incidents that were motivated by hate and to manually provide CCJS with characteristics of each incident. CCJS then entered the data from paper-based supplemental surveys into an electronic database and performed quality verification checks on the data collected.

The hate crime data provided through the UCR 2.2 include information related to the type of incident, motivation (i.e., whether motivated by hate based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, or other similar factor), and characteristics of the offender and victim (if applicable). The supplemental survey provides information on the incidents, but does not include data on the characteristics of the offender or victim, so is not as comprehensive.

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