According to the 2009 Hate Crime Statistics report released by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, the number of hate crimes reported in 2009 fell about 15% from the previous year. Participating local law enforcement agencies reported a total of 6,604 incidents — down from 7,783 reported incidents in 2008 — involving 7,789 offenses as a result of bias toward a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or disability.
Agencies that participated in the Hate Crime Statistics Program in 2009 represented over 295 million inhabitants, or 96.3% of the nation’s population. For each hate crime offense type reported, law enforcement must indicate at least one bias motivation. A single-bias incident is defined as an incident in which one or more offense types are motivated by the same bias. A multiple-bias incident is defined as an incident in which more than one offense type occurs and at least two offense types are motivated by different biases.
Here are some statistics taken from the report:
- Analysis of the 6,598 single-bias incidents showed that 48.5% were motivated by a racial bias, 19.7% were motivated by a religious bias, 18.5% were triggered by a sexualorientation bias, 11.8% were motivated by an ethnicity/national origin bias, and 1.5% involved a bias against a disability.
- Of the 7,789 hate crime offenses reported in 2009, 4,793, or 61.5%, were crimes against persons. Intimidation accounted for 45% of crimes against persons, simple assaults for 35.3%, and aggravated assaults for 19.1%. Eight murders and nine forcible rapes were reported as hate crimes in 2009.
- There were 2,970 hate crime offenses, or 38.1% of the total hate crimes reported, classified as crimes against property. The majority of these offenses (83%) were acts of damage/destruction/vandalism. The remaining 17% of crimes against property consisted of robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and other offenses.
- When considering the type of victims of property crimes in 2009, 48.5% were committed against individuals, 11.5% were directed at businesses or financial institutions, 9.8% were against the government, 8% were aimed at religious organizations, and the remaining 22.2% were directed at other, multiple, or unknown victim types.
- There were also 26 offenses defined as crimes against society. These offenses include drug or narcotic offenses, as well as prostitution offenses. According to data for the 6,225 known offenders reported in 2009, 62.4% were white, 18.5% were black, 7.3% were groups made up of individuals of various races (multiple races group), 1% were American Indian/Alaskan Native, 0.7% were Asian/Pacific Islander, and 10.2% were of unknown race.
- A total of 8,336 victims of hate crimes were identified in 2009. Of these victims, 14 were victimized in six separate multiple-bias incidents. Almost half of the victims of hate crimes in 2009 were targeted because of their race. Of the remaining victims, 18.9% were targeted because of a bias against a religious belief, 17.8% were victims because of a bias against a particular sexual orientation, 13.3% were targeted because of a bias against an ethnicity/national origin, and 1.2% were victimized because of a bias against a disability.
- Of the 4,057 victims of racial bias crimes, 71.5% were victims of an offender’s anti-black bias, 16.5% were victims because of an anti-white bias, 3.7% were targeted because of an anti-Asian/Pacific Islander bias, 2.1% were victims because of an anti-American Indian/Alaskan Native bias, and 6.2% were victims because of a bias against a group of individuals in which more than one race was represented (anti-multiple races, group).
- Of the 1,575 victims of an anti-religious hate crime, 71.9% were victims because of an offender’s anti-Jewish bias, 8.4% were victims because of an anti-Islamic bias, 3.7% were victims because of an anti-Catholic bias, and 2.7% were victims because of an anti-Protestant bias.
- Of the 1,482 victims targeted due to a sexual-orientation bias, over half (55.1%) were victims because of an offender’s anti-male homosexual bias, 26.4% were victims because of an anti-homosexual bias, 15.3% were victims because of an antifemale homosexual bias, 1.8% were victims because of an antibisexual bias, and 1.4% were victims because of an antiheterosexual bias.
- Hate crimes motivated by the offender’s bias toward a particular ethnicity/national origin were directed at 1,109 victims. Of these victims, 62.4% were targeted because of an anti-Hispanic bias, while 37.6% were victimized because of a bias against other ethnicities/national origins.
- The largest percentage (31.3%) of hate crime incidents in 2009 occurred in or near residences or homes, followed by 17.2% on highways, roads, alleys, or streets; 11.4% at schools or colleges; 6.1% in parking lots or garages; 4.3% in churches, synagogues, or temples; 2% in bars or nightclubs; and 1.9% in commercial office buildings. The remaining 24.2% of hate crime incidents occurred at other specified locations (air/bus/train terminal, convenience store, service/gas station), in multiple locations, or other/unknown locations.-