An Open-Source Data Approach to Studying Bias Murder: An Introduction to the Bias Homicide Database (BHDB)

This research note introduces the Bias Homicide Database (BHDB), a relational, open-source dataset with information on bias murders committed in the United States since 1990. We first describe the limitations of official bias crime data and how the BHDB overcomes obstacles to empirically studying one type of bias crime—bias murder. Second, the multi-step process for open-source data collection is described in detail along with potential issues of reliability and selectivity. Finally, and third, we provide some descriptive results to demonstrate the contributions of the BHDB and how researchers may use the dataset moving forward.