According to the 2010 Hate Crime Statistics report released by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program late in 2011 the number of hate crimes reported nationwide in 2010 remained fairly steady from the previous year. Participating local law enforcement agencies reported a total of 6,628 incidents — up just slightly from the 6,604 incidents reported in 2009 — involving 7,699 offenses as a result of bias toward a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or disability. Alabama showed an increase in the number of hate crimes reported — from nine in 2009 to 19 in 2010, but remained well below the average of such crimes reported in other states.
Agencies that participated in the Hate Crime Statistics Program in 2010 represented over 285 million inhabitants, or 92.3 percent of the nation’s population, and their jurisdictions covered 49 states and the District of Columbia. 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.
Incidents & Offenses
In 2010, 1,949 law enforcement agencies reported 6,628 hate crime incidents involving 7,699 offenses. There were 6,624 single-bias incidents that involved 7,690 offenses, 8,199 victims, and 6,001 offenders. The four multiple-bias incidents reported in 2010 involved nine offenses, nine victims, and seven offenders.
Analysis of the 6,624 single-bias incidents showed that 47.3 percent were motivated by a racial bias (down from 48.5% in 2009), 20 percent were motivated by a religious bias (remaining fairly steady from 19.7% in 2009), 19.3 percent were motivated by a sexual-orientation bias (up from 18.5% in 2009), and 12.8 percent were triggered by ethnicity/national origin bias (up from 11.8% in 2009). Bias against a disability accounted for only 0.6% of single-bias incidents (down from 1.5% in 2009).
There were 4,824 single-bias hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons. Intimidation accounted for 46.2 percent of these crimes, simple assaults for 34.8 percent, and aggravated assaults for 18.4 percent. In addition, seven murders were reported as hate crimes.
There were 2,861 single-bias hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property. The majority of these offenses (81.1%) were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism. The remaining 18.9 percent of crimes against property consisted of robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and other offenses. There were 14 offenses defined as crimes against society (e.g., drug or narcotic offenses
or prostitution).
When considering hate crime offenses by the type of victims reported, 81.6 percent of reported offenses were directed at individuals, 4.5 percent were against businesses or financial institutions, 3.5 percent were against government, 2.6 percent were against religious organizations, and 0.2 percent were against society. The remaining 7.6 percent were directed at other, multiple, or unknown victim types.
Victims
Of the 7,690 single-bias hate crimes reported in 2010, almost half of the victims (3,949, or 48.2%) were targeted because of their race. Of these victims, 70 percent were victims of offender’s anti-black bias, while only 17.7 percent were victims of an anti-white bias. Of the remaining victims, 5.1 percent were targeted because of an anti-Asian/Pacific Islander bias, 1.2 percent were victims of an anti-American Indian/Alaskan Native bias, and six percent were victims of a bias against a group of individuals in which more than one race was represented (anti-multiple races, group).
Hate crimes motivated by a religious bias accounted for 1,552 offenses (or 18.9%) in 2010. Of these victims, 67 percent were victims because of an offender’s anti-Jewish bias, 12.7 percent were victims because of an anti-Islamic bias, 4.2 percent were victims because of an anti-Catholic bias, three percent were victims because of an anti-Protestant bias, and 0.5 percent were victims of an anti-atheist/agnostic bias. Of the remaining victims, 9.1 percent were victims of a bias against other religions (anti-other religion), and 3.5 percent were victims of a bias against groups of individuals of varying religions (anti-multiple religions, groups).
There were 1,528 hate crimes (or 18.6%) based on a sexual-orientation bias reported in 2010. Of these victims, 57.3 percent were targeted because of an anti-male homosexual bias, 27.5 percent were reported as anti-homosexual bias, and 11.8 percent were prompted by an anti-female homosexual bias. Of the remaining victims, 1.9 percent were classified as anti-bisexual bias, while 1.4 percent were the result of an anti-heterosexual bias.
Hate crimes motivated by the offender’s bias toward a particular ethnicity/national origin were directed at 1,122 victims (or 13.7%). Of these victims, 66.6 percent were targeted because of an anti-Hispanic bias, while 33.4 percent were victimized because of a bias against other ethnicities/national origins.
There were 48 reported hate crimes committed based on a disability bias. Of these, 24 offenses were classified as anti-mental disability, while 24 offenses were reported as anti-physical disability.
Offenders
In 2010, of the 6,008 known hate crime offenders, 58.6 percent were white, 18.4 percent were black, 8.9 percent were groups made up of individuals of various races (multiple races, group), 1.1 percent were Asian/Pacific Islander, one percent were American Indian/Alaskan Native, and 12 percent were of unknown race.
A total of 4,873 known hate crime offenders committed crimes against persons in 2010, and of these offenders, 40.5 percent committed simple assault, 35.4 percent intimidated their victims, 23.5 percent committed aggravated assault, 0.3 percent murdered or raped their victims, and 0.3 percent committed other types of offenses.
A total of 1,419 known hate crime offenders committed crimes against property in 2010, and of these offenders, 58.6 percent committed destruction/damage/vandalism, 20.4 percent committed robbery, 9.9 percent committed larceny-theft, 6.2 percent committed burglary, 2.1 percent committed arson, 0.6 percent committed motor vehicle theft, and 2.2 percent committed other types of offenses.
In 2010, 18 known offenders committed 14 crimes against society involving 14 victims.
Location
Beginning in 2010, reporting agencies could specify the location of an offense within a hate crime incident as one of 30 (formerly 25) location designations. The five new location designations are camp/campground, gambling facility/casino/race track, industrial site, park/playground, and shopping mall. Because not all reporting agencies have made the programming change to allow these additional location designations, the data collected to date is not yet representative of these new location designations.
The largest percentage (31.4%) of hate crime incidents in 2010 occurred in or near residences or homes, followed by 17 percent on highways, roads, alleys, or streets; 10.9 percent at schools or colleges; 5.8 percent in parking lots or garages; 3.7 percent in churches, synagogues, or temples; 2.2 percent in bars or nightclubs; 1.9 percent in commercial office buildings; and 1.6 percent in government/public buildings. The remaining 25.6 percent 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.