Introducing the Bias Homicide Database

Faculty members from the Department of Sociology & Criminology Kayla Allison and Jeff Gruenewald recently published an article titled "An Open-Source Data Approach to Studying Bias Murder: An Introduction to the Bias Homicide Database (BHDB)" in the journal of Homicide Studies. Housed in the University of Arkansas' Terrorism Research Center, the database provides students, researchers and other stakeholders with information to track patterns and trends in bias murders committed across the United States since 1990.  

Bias murders are defined as attacks in which offender(s) target one or more victims wholly or in part based on their real or perceived social group, such as a religious or racial group. Deadly acts of bias-motivated violence have increased in the U.S. over the last several years. The Bias Homicide Database adopts an open-source approach to data collection, originally created to overcome the limitations of national crime statistics that have historically under-counted this form of violence.  

Data can be easily accessed through an interactive dashboard housed on the TRC's website. Engineered by student researchers from the U of A's Data Science and Sociology and Criminology programs, the dashboard features include a map element showing numbers of bias murders by state, an adjustable year range, while also filtering for weapon types and whether there are official hate crime charges. Data visuals can be modified to show the number of deaths, victim groups and incident counts. 

In creating the data portal for the Bias Homicide Database, professors Allison and Gruenewald hope it can be a resource for researchers and other stakeholders interested in learning more about the situational and geospatial dynamics of bias murder in America.