Today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released statistics which indicated that 7,624 criminal incidents involving 9,006 offenses were reported in 2007 as a result of bias toward a particular race, religion, ethnicity/national origin, or physical or mental disability. Hate Crime Statistics, 2007, published by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, includes data from hate crime reports submitted by law enforcement agencies throughout the nation.

The 2007 statistics are down about 1 percent from last year. The decline was driven by decreases in the two largest categories of hate crimes – crimes against race and religion.

The data released today is consistent with previous years. Racial bias remained the most common motive, accounting for more than half of all reported hate crimes. Blacks, and Jews were the most frequent victims of hate crimes, the report found.

More than a third of all hate crime incidents were categorized as vandalism or property destruction. Intimidation was the second most common hate crime, followed by simple assault.

The report was based on data drawn from 13,241 law enforcement agencies nationwide, covering about 85 percent of the nation’s population. By comparison, the broader crime report the FBI puts out every year draws data from about 17,000 law enforcement agencies.

Hate Crime Statistics, 2007, includes the following information:

*Of the 7,621 single-bias incidents, 50.8 percent were motivated by a racial bias, 18.4 percent were motivated by a religious bias, 16.6 percent were motivated by bias, and 13.2 percent were motivated by an ethnicity/national origin bias. One percent involved a bias against a disability.

*There were 5,408 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons in 2007. Intimidation accounted for 47.4 percent of crimes against persons, simple assaults for 31.1 percent, and aggravated assaults for 20.6 percent. Nine murders were reported as hate crimes.

*There were 3,579 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property; most of these (81.4 percent) were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism. The remaining 18.6 percent of crimes against property consisted of robbery, burglary, larceny theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and other offenses.

*Of the 6,965 known offenders, 62.9 percent were white and 20.8 percent were black. The race was unknown for 9.8 percent, and other races accounted for the remaining known offenders.

*The largest percentage (30.5 percent) of hate crime incidents occurred in or near homes. Also, 18.9 percent took place on highways, roads, alleys, or streets; 11.3 percent happened at schools or colleges; 6.0 percent in parking lots or garages; and 4.1 percent in churches, synagogues, or temples. The remaining 29.3 percent of hate crime incidents took place at other specified locations, multiple locations, or other/unknown locations.

(Yehuda Drudgestein – YWN)