and (5) if reports to law enforcement do not result in prosecution and conviction, people

with disabilities will lose faith in law enforcement and the benefits of reporting will not

outweigh the risk association with # 4. Problems with bias crime data discussed

previously, also apply to people with disabilities. An analysis of the problems with bias

crime data for people with disabilities will be presented below.

As mentioned previously, people with disabilities are included in bias crime legislation in

approximately 21, roughly half, of the United States (Perry, 2001). Yet, this doesn't

appear to impact the reporting of bias crimes against people with disabilities. For

example, the data from 1997 to 2003 was analyzed by state (Federal Bureau of

Investigation, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999a, 1998, 1997). A total of 199 bias crimes

committed against a person with a disability were reported. Twenty-two states reported

no bias crimes, which included Florida, Georgia, and Iowa, each of which have bias

crime legislation including people with disabilities. Conversely, California, Washington

and Wisconsin do not have bias crime legislation but have each reported at least one bias

crime during this period. The largest number of crimes reported was from the state of

South Carolina, who reported 32 (or 16% of the total) bias motivated crimes. The South

Carolina and Tennessee were the only two states in the southeast that reported any bias

crimes against PWD during the period. The top three states reporting for the period were

South Carolina with 32, California with 21, and Tennessee with 18. The fact that two of

the top three reporting states are located in the southeast when the other southeast states

did not report any bias crime incidents is suspect. Additionally, of the top three states,

California doesn't have legislation allowing sentencing enhancement for bias crimes