FBI Releases Hate Crime Report

The number of hate crimes reported in 2011 fell 6% from the prior year, but crimes against a victim's sexual orientation rose, the FBI announced Tuesday.

More than 6,222 criminal incidents involving 7,254 offenses were a result of a bias toward a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or physical or mental disability.

The statistics were published in "Hate Crime Statistics, 2011" and provide data about the offenses, victims, offenders, and locations of the bias-motivated incidents reported by law enforcement agencies through the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program.

According to the report, there were 6,216 single-bias incidents, of which 46.9% were motivated by a racial bias, 20.8% were motivated by a sexual orientation bias, 19.8% were motivated by a religious bias, and 11.6% were motivated by an ethnicity/national origin bias. Bias against a disability accounted for 0.9% of single-bias incidents.

Of the 4,623 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons in 2011, intimidation accounted for 45.6%, simple assaults for 34.5%, and aggravated assaults for 19.4%. Four murders and seven forcible rapes were reported as hate crimes.

There were 2,611 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property. The majority of these (81.4%) were acts of destruction, damage, or vandalism. Robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and other offenses accounted for the remaining 18.6% of crimes against property.

Of the 5,731 known offenders, 59% were white and 20.9% were black. The race was unknown for 10.8%, and other races accounted for the remaining known offenders.

Related:

FBI: Hate Crimes Remained Steady In 2010