From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: Religious-Based Hate Crimes on College Campuses Description: Religious-based hate crimes are on the rise on college campuses. We discuss what federal agencies are doing about it. Related GAO Work: GAO-20-6: Religious-Based Hate Crimes: DOJ Needs to Improve Support to Colleges Given Increasing Reports on Campuses Released: October 2019 [ Background Music ] [ Melissa Emrey-Arras: ] We've seen an increase in religious-based hate crimes on college campuses over the years. [ Matt Oldham: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. I'm Matt Oldham. On average, more than 200,000 Americans report being victims of hate crimes per year and the number of religious-based hate crimes on our college campuses has risen over the past decade. With me is Melissa Emrey-Arras, an Education Workforce and Income Security director at GAO. And we're going to talk about a study of these hate crimes at colleges. Thanks for joining me, Melissa. [ Melissa Emrey-Arras: ] Thanks for having me here, Matt. [ Matt Oldham: ] So, Melissa, could you explain what makes hate crimes different from other crimes? [ Melissa Emrey-Arras: ] Hate crimes are different in that they're motivated by bias against the other based on a characteristic, like race, or religion, or sexual orientation. That person may actually have that characteristic, or it may just be perceived that that person has that characteristic, but regardless, there's that -- that sense of bias against that individual because of that characteristic. And these crimes are different from other crimes also in that they can have a broader effect because they target not only the victim but that the group that that victim represents. [ Matt Oldham: ] So, what do we know about the particular crimes that your study looked at? Who did they target? And how many of these incidents are there? [ Melissa Emrey-Arras: ] So, we looked at the period from 2009 to 2017, and for one of the data sources for the Department of Education, we found that these religious-based hate crimes increased from 103 in 2009 to 189 in 2017. So, you see the significant increase over time. We also looked at Department of Justice data, which has slightly different measurements, but also found an increase over that same time period. And in terms of what you see when you look at the data is that the -- the increases are really driven in large part by anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim hate crimes. The types of incidents can vary. So, we found that the majority of the hate crimes were categorized as vandalism, so destruction or damage of property. But there were other types of hate crimes as well, including ones involving assault, as well as hate crimes of intimidation. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] So, it sounds like there are two federal agencies who primarily track these religious-based hate crimes on our colleges, and those are the Department Education, Department of Justice. Melissa, what is the federal government's interest here? Why do Education and Justice collect this information? [ Melissa Emrey-Arras: ] We found that both the Department of Education and the Department of Justice have information and resources that can help college officials, that can help college campus law enforcement groups monitor and address these religious-based hate crimes. Yet, what we found in this -- in this recent report from GAO was that that information -- especially the information that's coming from the Department of Justice is not always known by those at the college level. So, there's -- you know, there's some information out there but it's not necessarily getting into the hands of the folks that could really benefit from it. [ Matt Oldham: ] So, does your report have any recommendations? [ Melissa Emrey-Arras: ] Yes, so we have three recommendations to the Department of Justice, to improve how it shares information with schools and others involved in colleges to make sure that they can be aware of the information that the Department of Justice has to use in monitoring and addressing hate crimes on campus. [ Matt Oldham: ] So, what's the bottom line? [ Melissa Emrey-Arras: ] The bottom line is that we've seen an increase in religious-based hate crimes on college campuses over the years and so these are significant concerns and we've seen these, you know, happening across the country. And because of that, we think it's important that the resources that the federal government has on how to monitor and address hate crimes get into the hands of folks dealing with this issue on the -- the college level. [ Matt Oldham: ] Melissa Emrey-Arras was talking about a GAO study on the data the federal government collects on religious-based hate crimes occurring on our college campuses. Thank you for your time, Melissa. [ Melissa Emrey-Arras: ] Thank you, Matt. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] And thank you for listening to the Watchdog Report. To hear more podcasts, subscribe to us on Apple podcasts. For more from the Congressional Watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, visit us at gao.gov.