NCJRS - National Criminal Justice Reference Service

Each year the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) compiles volume and rate of crime offenses for the United States, each State, and individual agencies in the report Crime in the United States. In 2004, more than 17,000 city, county, and State law enforcement agencies reported crime data to the national Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program via Summary reporting or the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). As a part of this data collection, the FBI also presents data regarding incidents, offenses, victims, and offenders in reported crimes that were motivated in whole or in part by a bias against the victim's perceived race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability. Those agencies that participated in the hate crime data collection program represented nearly 83 percent of the Nation's population, and their jurisdictions covered 49 states and the District of Columbia. This information can be found in the section labeled Hate Crime Statistics. Hate Crime Statistics, 2004 was released in October 2005 and includes the following findings:
- "In 2004, law enforcement agencies reported 5,642 offenses as crimes against persons, which accounted for 62.4 percent of reported hate crimes. Agencies also reported 3,333 offenses, or 36.9 percent of the total, as crimes against property and 60 offenses, or 0.7 percent, as crimes against society."
- "In 2004, racial bias motivated more than half (53.9 percent) of the 9,021 reported offenses within single-bias hate crime incidents; religious bias accounted for 16.4 percent; bias regarding sexual orientation, 15.6 percent; ethnicity or national origin, 13.3 percent; and disability bias, 0.8 percent."
- "Law enforcement agencies throughout the Nation reported that there were 9,528 victims of 9,035 offenses within 7,649 incidents during 2004."
- "An analysis of the 9,035 hate crime offenses reported by law enforcement agencies in 2004 showed that intimidation accounted for 31.3 percent; destruction, damage, or vandalism comprised 31.1 percent; simple assault, 19.4 percent; and aggravated assault, 11.5 percent."
- "An examination of hate crime incidents reported in 2004 indicated that of the 7,649 incidents, 31.7 percent occurred in or near residences or homes."
According to the 2001 National Survey of Prosecutors, which surveyed 2,341 chief prosecutors in the United States that handled felony cases in State courts of general jurisdiction, 20.2 percent of the offices prosecuted felony hate crime cases in 2001 (Prosecutors in State Courts, 2001, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2002).
In 1999, 3,396 law enforcement agencies in 17 States (compared to 1,878 agencies in 10 States in 1997) submitted data to the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), which compiles crime data that provides more detailed information on specific crime events. The Bureau of Justice Statistics publication, Hate Crimes Reported in NIBRS, 1997-99 (2001) , presents data from NIBRS to describe hate crimes reported to law enforcement in NIBRS-participating jurisdictions during the three year period and analyzes NIBRS hate crime incidents, including information on the type of bias motivation, the offenses committed during these incidents, the presence and use of weapons, and the location and the time of day of these crimes. Findings from the report include:
- "Sixty-one percent of hate crime incidents were motivated by race, 14 percent by religion, 13 percent by sexual orientation, 11 percent by ethnicity, and 1 percent by victim disability."
- "Racially and ethnically motivated incidents were the most likely to be violent. Overall, 66% of race-related incidents and 69% of ethnic-related incidents involved a violent crime. In a quarter of racial or ethnically motivated incidents, intimidation was the most serious offense."
- "Younger offenders were responsible for most hate crimes. Thirty-one percent of violent offenders and 46 percent of property offenders were under age 18."

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