Looking at Reported Hate Crimes

This investigation was instigated by the horrific events of October 27, 2018, when Joyce Fienberg, an old and dear friend, was one of 11 congregants murdered in Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2018); Joyce was the widow of famed statistician (and founding editor of CHANCE) Stephen E. Fienberg. As time passed, we grew numb, but the spirit of Tikkun Olam kindled the desire to try to do something. But what? We are statisticians (and Jews), so our path to understanding and thus perhaps diminishing the likelihood of the recurrence of such terrible events begins with looking at data. is account is the start of our empirical search for understanding. e path to understanding is paved with questions whose answers provide illumination. Although many of these questions are causal, we must begin with some obvious questions whose answers are descriptive. ree categories of questions that require descriptive answers are: