CASE STUDY
Collaborative for Hate-Crime Incident Research, Response & Prevention (CHIRRP)
LOCATION
New York, NY
ISSUE
Advancing Justice
ACTIVE
2024 - Present
A community-led research project that connects the knowledge of community-based organizations with the resources, strategies, and partnerships to help increase reporting, support survivors, and ultimately reduce hate crime perpetration in New York City.
Challenge:
In 2023, over 11,000 hate crime incidents were reported to law enforcement agencies in the United States—the highest ever recorded since data collection began. At the same time, hate crimes remain widely underreported and unaddressed, making it difficult to grasp the full extent of communities being impacted by hate crimes. This gap between reporting and effective response leaves many hate victims and their communities susceptible to further victimization.
Community-based organizations (CBOs) are the backbone of thriving communities, with knowledge of, legitimacy among, and strong ties to the groups they serve. Yet, their role and success in preventing and responding to hate crimes remains understudied and underutilized. In New York City, a coalition of CBOs reflecting the diversity of NYC’s communities has been working to tackle hate and support victims of hate crimes. This type of partnership may hold the key to effective hate crime strategies elsewhere.
Approach:
In 2024, the CUNY Institute for State & Local Governance, Rutgers University, and Florida International University were funded by the Department of Justice to develop a community-based research project in partnership with New York City’s community-based organizations (CBOs) to understand how to better prevent and respond to hate crimes. This includes:
Increasing victim reporting of hate crimes to CBOs in order to more effectively deploy local resources for hate crime prevention and response.
Improving support for victims of hate crimes and communities affected by hate crimes, specifically by leveraging CBOs' knowledge of, and legitimacy within, these communities.
Strengthening coordination among CBOs in order to more effectively use resources and knowledge proactively to prevent hate crimes and respond when they do occur.
The core project partners represent seven communities affected disproportionately by hate crimes in New York City, including Black/African American, Arab/Muslim, Asian and Pacific Islander, Latine, Jewish, Trans/LGBTQ, and Sikh. In addition to this group of religious organizations, cultural membership organizations, and advocacy organizations, the Mayor’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes funds and regularly convenes these providers and their constituent networks. Other partners include Safe Horizon, the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, and New York City’s Commission on Human Rights .
Progress:
Together, the project team has developed a community participatory design for the project—including interviews, data analysis, surveys, document reviews, and more—to better understand, prevent, and respond to hate crimes, and chart CBOs’ roles in doing so. The project also employs a number of Community Research Associates to more effectively outreach and conduct research with the study populations.
Community-based organizations leading this initiative include:
Data collection began in Spring 2025 and will continue though early 2026. At the moment, we are conducting interviews with staff at CBOs who work to address hate crimes, and interviews with survivors of hate crimes. If you are a survivor of a hate crime, you’re invited to participate in an interview with CHIRRP to share your experiences and what you’d like to see change in the hate crime reporting and response systems. Please complete the form to participate or reach out to Sana Khan at sana.khan@islg.cuny.edu.
All ongoing and up-to-date work related to CHIRRP will be shared on the initiative website, CHIRRP.NYC.com. The website includes direct links to partner publications, project updates, hate crimes funding opportunities, and relevant hate crimes news articles. As project findings begin to emerge, we will also hold discussion forums to develop recommendations and action steps for communities involved in the project. Announcements for these forums will also be shared on the initiative website.
