Fighting Hate

• Author: Marc Davis
• Pages: 14-14

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL, MIRTMIRT/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Opening Statements

Reporting a hate cr ime can be a complex process

for those who have faced bias-bas ed attacks—one

more challenge after a ter rifying experience. But

a website launched last year by t he ABA Center for

Innovation has simplifi ed the process for more tha n

2,000 site users. Launched in pa rtnership with

CuroLegal to add ress an increase in hate crimes

across the countr y, the founders of Hate Cr ime

Help say its mission remains as cr itical as ever.

“People don’t know where to turn,” says Andrew

Perlman, dean at Su olk University Law School and

former chair of the Center for Innovation’s governing

council. “We hoped that the website we create d would

provide a user-friendly dig ital tool to

help hate crime victi ms.”

The site walks v ictims—who remain

anonymous—th rough the reporting pr o-

cess, which can enta il contacting multi-

ple law enforcement agencies and public

and private organi zations. The fi ll-in-

the-blanks tool a ssists victims of hara ss-

ment, violence and property da mage

resulting from ac ts based on religion,

race, ethnicit y, gender, gender identity,

disability or sexua l orientation.

It also prompts victims t o report the

ZIP code of the hate crime a nd where

it happened—at work, school or home,

for example—and the nature of the

crime. Victim s also may report incidents

of bias. Based on that infor mation, the

site lists a var iety of resources.

RISING FIGURES

Hate crimes are incre asing, accord-

ing to FBI statistics. There were 6 ,121

incidents recorded in 2016, the last

year for which data is avai lable—an

increase of 4.6 percent over 2015.

The increase in 2015 was 6.8 perc ent

over the previous year. But expert s say these numbers

could be much higher because not all hat e crimes are

reported by vic tims or law enforcement, leaving data

incomplete.

In its fi rst year, more than 2,000 users have accessed

hatecrimehelp.com. Af ter fi lling out the questionna ire,

victims ar e directed to organizations such a s state

attorney general o ces; the FBI; the Anti-Defamation

League; the nonprofi t newsroom ProPublica; and

Communities Again st Hate, a national initiative

documenting incidents of violence, threat s and

property damage t hat are motivated by hate.

The goal has been to fac ilitate reporting and make

it easier for people to fi nd relevant

resources. At the same ti me, the

founders wanted to ensure user s felt

secure consulting the site . “A key

part of this wa s we weren’t collect-

ing user data,” says CuroLega l CEO

Chad Burton. “We didn’t want peo -

ple feeling they were being tracked.

Perlman says, “The idea for the

website was brought to us by Nicole

Bradick.” She was chief strate gy

o cer for Cu roLegal and left to

found legal service s company

Theory and Principle.

Development of the site was a

team e ort inspired by a March

2017 design event at Su olk ,

where the theme was responding

to hate crimes thr ough technology.

CuroLegal developed the idea

for Hate Crime Help and brought

it to the ABA Center for Innovation.

Technology company Cisco Systems

provided the initial f unding, and

Su olk, Stanford Law School

and CuroLegal prov ided in-kind

development. —Marc Davis

“WE HOPED THAT THE WEBSITE

WE CREATED WOULD PROVIDE

A USER-FRIENDLY DIGITAL TOOL

TO HELP HATE CRIME VICTIMS.”

—Andrew Perlman

Fighting Hate

Website serves more than 2,000

in fi rst year of reporting incidents

14 || ABA JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2018