Incidents and Offenses

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The Uniform Crime Reporting Program collects data about both single-bias and multiple-bias hate crimes. For each 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.

In 2011, 1,944 law enforcement agencies reported 6,222 hate crime incidents involving 7,254 offenses.

There were 6,216 single-bias incidents that involved 7,240 offenses, 7,697 victims, and 5,724 offenders.

The 6 multiple­-bias incidents reported in 2011 involved 14 offenses, 16 victims, and 7 offenders. (See Tables 1 and 12.)

Single-bias incidents

Analysis of the 6,216 single-bias incidents reported in 2011 revealed the following:

46.9 percent were racially motivated.

20.8 percent resulted from sexual-orientation bias.

19.8 percent were motivated by religious bias.

11.6 percent stemmed from ethnicity/national origin bias.

Less than 1 percent (0.9) were prompted by disability bias. (Based on Table 1.)

Offenses by bias motivation within incidents

Of the 7,240 single-bias hate crime offenses reported in the above incidents:

47.9 percent stemmed from racial bias.

20.8 percent were motivated by sexual-orientation bias.

18.2 percent resulted from religious bias.

12.3 percent were prompted by ethnicity/national origin bias.

0.8 percent resulted from biases against disabilities. (Based on Table 1.)

Racial bias

In 2011, law enforcement agencies reported that 3,465 single-bias hate crime offenses were racially motivated. Of these offenses:

72.0 percent were motivated by anti-black bias.

16.7 percent stemmed from anti-white bias.

4.8 percent resulted from anti-Asian/Pacific Islander bias.

4.7 percent were a result of bias against groups of individuals consisting of more than one race (anti-multiple races, group).

1.9 percent were motivated by anti-American Indian/Alaskan Native bias. (Based on Table 1.)

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,318 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-biased offenses showed:

62.2 percent were anti-Jewish.

13.3 percent were anti-Islamic.

5.2 percent were anti-Catholic.

4.8 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.

3.7 percent were anti-Protestant.

0.3 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.

10.5 percent were anti-other religion. (Based on Table 1.)

Sexual-orientation bias

In 2011, law enforcement agencies reported 1,508 hate crime offenses based on sexual-orientation bias. Of these offenses:

57.8 percent were classified as anti-male homosexual bias.

28.4 percent were reported as anti-homosexual bias.

11.1 percent were prompted by an anti-female homosexual bias.

1.5 percent were classified as anti-bisexual bias.

1.1 percent were the result of an anti-heterosexual bias. (Based on Table 1.)

Ethnicity/national origin bias

Of the single-bias incidents, 891 offenses were committed based on the perceived ethnicity or national origin of the victim. Of these offenses:

56.8 percent were anti-Hispanic bias.

43.2 percent were anti-other ethnicity/national origin bias. (Based on Table 1.)

Disability bias

There were 58 reported hate crime offenses committed based on disability bias. Of these:

35 offenses were classified as anti-mental disability.

23 offenses were reported as anti-physical disability. (See Table 1.)

By offense types

Of the 7,254 reported hate crime offenses in 2011:

29.3 percent were destruction/damage/vandalism.

29.0 percent were intimidation.

22.0 percent were simple assault.

12.3 percent were aggravated assault.

0.3 percent were comprised of crimes against society.

The remaining 7.1 percent were comprised of additional crimes against persons and property. (Based on Table 2.)

Offenses by crime category

Among the 7,254 hate crime offenses reported:

63.7 percent were crimes against persons.

36.0 percent were crimes against property.

The remainder were crimes against society. (Based on Table 2.) (See Data Collection in Methodology.)

Crimes against persons

Law enforcement reported 4,623 hate crime offenses as crimes against persons. By offense type:

45.6 percent were intimidation.

34.5 percent were simple assault.

19.4 percent were aggravated assault.

0.2 percent consisted of 4 murders and 7 forcible rapes.

0.3 percent involved the offense category other, which is collected only in the National Incident-Based Reporting System. (Based on Table 2.)

Crimes against property

The majority of the 2,611 hate crime offenses that were crimes against property (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 crimes. (Based on Table 2.)

Crimes against society

There were 20 offenses defined as crimes against society (e.g., drug or narcotic offenses or prostitution).

By victim type

When considering the type of victims among the reported 7,254 hate crime offenses:

82.9 percent were directed at individuals.

4.2 percent were against businesses or financial institutions.

2.9 percent were against religious organizations.

2.8 percent were against government.

0.3 percent were against society.

The remaining 6.9 percent were directed at other, multiple, or unknown victim types. (Based on Table 6.)

If you have questions about this information

Contact the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division via e-mail at cjis_comm@leo.gov or by telephone at (304) 625-4995.