Functional Analysis of Hate Crimes (based on sexual orientation)

Rationale: It is important for students to understand how we can apply mathematical theorems to real life phenomena.  Through this application, we can better analyze the data and draw conclusions from the trend.  When discussing homosexuality, hate crimes are a harsh reality and all high school students should be aware of the issue.  We will take the time to introduce students to hate crimes and present some outrageous footage.  By collecting data from the past decade, students can understand what has changed, what has stayed the same, and make predictions for the future.  This activity should spark curiosity (i.e. what caused a sudden decrease or increase during a specific year?).  With such a shocking and sensitive issue, the lesson allows for student expression and inquiry.  I hope that by studying functions from a more meaningful perspective, students will be able to make generalizations and clearly differentiate between exponential, logarithmic, polynomial, and periodic. I hope students walk away feeling more informed on the issue of hate crimes based on sexual orientation and curious as to how else math can be applied to explain the world around us.  

Pivotal Questions:  

What natural phenomena can be described by the _____ function?

What is the meaning behind the data?

How do we define a periodic function?

What are the most basic periodic functions?

What function does the hate crime statistics most resemble?

            What key features are present and what is missing?

How can you describe the graph and general equation of the ____ function?

In 2007, law enforcement agencies reported 1,460 hate crime offenses based on sexual-orientation bias.  Of these offenses:

• 59.2 percent were classified as anti-male homosexual bias.
• 24.8 percent were reported as anti-homosexual bias.
• 12.6 percent were prompted by an anti-female homosexual bias.
• 1.8 percent were the result of an anti-heterosexual bias.
• 1.6 percent were classified as anti-bisexual bias.  (Based on Table 1.)