Does presence of Mental Wellbeing Facilities reduce Hate Crime?

In this project, we are focussing on Hate crime.

• What is Hate crime?

A hate crime is one that is motivated in whole or in part by prejudice towards particular personal characteristics.

• Why Hate crime?

Hate crimes are the highest priority of the FBI’s civil rights program because of the devastating impact they have on families and communities. The Bureau investigates hundreds of these cases every year, and we work to detect and prevent incidents through law enforcement training, public outreach, and partnerships with community groups[1].

Traditionally, FBI investigations of hate crimes were limited to crimes in which the perpetrators acted based on a bias against the victim’s race, color, religion, or national origin. In addition, investigations were restricted to those wherein the victim was engaged in a federally protected activity. With the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, the Bureau became authorized to also investigate crimes committed against those based on biases of actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or gender[1].

Problem Statement

Crime committed by a person emerges from unresolved thoughts that manifest to anger and disappointment, these unresolved thoughts need a safe platform to explore and resolve. Today, there are many facilities that can help people with mindfulness, having a calm mindset, and overall mental well-being. However, such facilities are not accessible to everyone. Our goal through this project is to analyze the impact of the presence of mental well-being facilities on hate crime rates through various demographics and regions. We seek to analyze whether the type of hate crime, the motivation of crime and demographic of the criminal is impacted by the availability of mental well-being facilities and the type of activities offered at such facilities. The analysis would enable us to evaluate the effectiveness of various facilities (Meditation centers, yoga studios, parks, art galleries and so on) to the general population and their basic mental health, it would further help us identify the changes needed to be made to such facilities to directly target the general population’s mental well being.