Horizons Community Services, in conjunction with the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Prevention Programs (NCAVP), released its 2002 hate-crimes report about anti-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) violence in the U.S. Horizons collects data for the Chicago area as one of 28 community-based organizations (and the only one in Illinois) that contribute to the nationwide effort to monitor and respond to incidents of hate crimes, domestic violence, sexual assault, police misconduct, and discrimination committed against LGBT individuals.
The NCAVP report—considered the most complete on this kind of violence—examines data compiled from more than 1,950 hate-related incidents in 12 cities and regions across the country: Chicago, Cleveland, Colorado, Columbus, Connecticut, Houston, Los Angeles, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York City and San Francisco, with some additional information from Pennsylvania.
Nationally, incident reports from victims aged 18 and under grew at the shocking rate of 164%. While not underplaying the problem of violence against young LGBT people, the report was careful to characterize this rise in reports as a function of better connections between young people and anti-violence programs, as well as the increased visibility and empowerment of young LGBT people, rather than an actual rise in attacks on young people.
However, the report also highlighted the continuing increase in assaults (+1%), with a significant rise in the number of assaults involving weapons (+10%). Consequently, the number of victims sustaining injuries continued to rise 3%, with the number of victims sustaining serious injuries rising 5%.
Locally, Chicago reported a total of 32 incidents, down 30% from the 2001 total of 46. The number of victims decreased from 59 to 38, and the number of offenders decreased 21%—from 58 in 2001 to 46 in 2002.
Horizons has gone through leadership and staff transitions, and this has impacted the agency's ability to get the word out about their programs, including hate-crimes support services and reporting.
Generally, with the exception of victims identifying as heterosexual (+67%), offenders aged 23-29 (+167%), and African-American offenders (+80%), there were decreases in most other categories here.
'We don't believe that hate crimes have actually gone down,' said Lisa Tonna, Interim Director of Programs at Horizons. 'We had fewer resources this year, including decreased staffing for nearly six months. The national report indicates that less than half of NCAVP's member programs contributed data this year, reflecting a fundamental and ongoing capacity and resource challenge for anti-violence organizations nationally.'
'The financial situation for most nonprofits is already serious,' says Modesto Tico Valle, Horizons Acting Executive Director. 'Being an agency that serves the LGBT community decreases our piece of the pie even more.'
Tonna said this year's numbers will probably increase. 'When we are at war there is always more potential for violence at home—more tension, more lashing out. Couple that with the national data that shows an increase in the number of victims who are of Arab, Middle-Eastern or Latino descent, and we could see the beginning of a dangerous trend.'
The national NCAVP report is the most complete such examination of violence against LGBT people. Each year, the FBI publishes its own report on hate crimes, which includes anti-LGBT incidents, but it consistently contains information on far fewer cases than the NCAVP publication because it relies on law enforcement reports of such crimes rather than victim service organization data.
See www.avp.org . Horizons, 961 W. Montana, (773) 472-6469.
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