Hate crime numbers steady, nearly half motivated by racial bias, FBI reports
As New York authorities investigate what appears to be the nation’s latest hate crime, the FBI’s annual hate crime report, released Monday, shows no significant change in the level of crimes motivated by bias.
The FBI reports the number of U.S. hate crimes - offenses as a result of bias toward race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity or national origin, physical or mental disability - totaled 6,628 in calendar year 2010. That’s slightly above the 6,604 total hate crimes reported during 2009.
The largest category of hate crimes involved race, accounting for nearly half of more than 6,000 incidents. Figures roughly reflected the nation’s overall population, with 58% of known offenders classified as “white” and 18% listed as “black.”
Statistics showed a total of 2,600 anti-black offenses, 679 anti-white and 681 anti-Hispanic.
The FBI reported that out of 6,624 “single-bias” incidents, 47.3% were motivated by a racial bias, 20% by a religious bias, 19.3% by a sexual orientation bias and 12.8% were motivated by an ethnicity bias.
The figures included cases of intimidation as well as assaults. Seven murders in the nation last year were attributed to any form of bias. Four of the offenders were white and three were black, the FBI report said.
The FBI’s annual report comes on the heels of a weekend incident in a Jewish section of Brooklyn in which three vehicles were set ablaze and graffiti was scrawled across park benches.