For Immediate Release
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2005
9 A.M. EASTERN TIME
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Washington D.C.
FBI National Press Office
(202) 324-3691
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FBI Releases Hate
Crime Statistics, 2004
Washington, D.C.—According to an annual
report released today by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 7,649 criminal
incidents committed in 2004 resulted from antagonism toward a particular
race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or physical
or mental disability. The report, Hate Crime Statistics, 2004, aggregates
data supplied by local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies
that voluntarily participate in the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program,
administered by the FBI. Analyses of the data address the categories of incidents,
offenses, victims, offenders, and location. The publication also details
what types of bias-motivated incidents each participating agency reported.
Incidents
The bias-motivated incidents reported to the
FBI in 2004 involved 9,035 separate offenses and 9,528 victims. All but 7
of the incidents had a single-bias motivation. Racial bias motivated 52.9
percent of the single-bias incidents, religious intolerance led to 18.0 percent,
bias about sexual orientation triggered 15.7 percent, and bias regarding
ethnicity/national origin led to 12.7 percent of the incidents. Less
than 1.0 percent involved bias against a disability.
Offenses and Victims
The UCR Program categorizes murder, forcible
rape, aggravated assault, simple assault, and intimidation as crimes
against persons. In this category, the most-often reported bias-motivated
offense was intimidation, comprising 50.1 percent of the total. Simple assault
accounted for 31.0 percent of such offenses. Murder and forcible rape
each accounted for less than 0.1 percent of the total, with 5 murders and
4 forcible rapes. The remaining offenses were in the category of other, accounting
for 0.3 percent.
Three of the 5 bias-motivated murders reported
by law enforcement resulted from the offender =s racial prejudice, 1 murder
stemmed from religious bias, and the other murder resulted from bias against
a particular sexual orientation. All 4 of the reported forcible rapes were
motivated by racial prejudice.
In the UCR Program, the category crimes against
property includes robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle
theft, arson, and damage/destruction/vandalism. The latter was the most-often
reported bias-motivated offense in this category, accounting for
84.4 percent of the total. An analysis of the victim data for crimes
against property showed that 51.4 percent of those offenses targeted
individuals, 10.4 percent were against businesses and/or financial institutions,
8.1 percent were against governmental entities, and 7.6 percent were against
religious organizations. Offenses against unknown, multiple, or other victim
types accounted for the remainder of crimes against property.
Offenders
Besides collecting data about the incidents,
victims, and offenses involving hate crimes, the UCR Program gathers information
about known offenders. In this context, known offender implies not
that the identity of the perpetrator is known but that a distinguishing attribute
of the offender has been identified. In 2004, law enforcement agencies reported
a total of 7,145 known offenders involved in 7,649 bias-motivated incidents.
Of these offenders, 60.6 percent were white, and 19.7 percent were black.
The race was unknown for 12.9 percent of the known offenders, and other races
or members of a group composed of multiple races accounted for the remaining
known offenders.
Location
Reporting agencies may specify the location of
a hate crime incident as one of 25 location types. An examination of the
hate crime incidents reported in 2004 indicated that of the 7,649 incidents,
31.7 percent occurred in or near residences or homes; 18.3 percent took place
on highways, roads, alleys, or streets; and 11.7 percent happened at schools
or colleges. The remaining incidents occurred at various other locations.
Jurisdictional Participation
The information contained in the current report
was submitted to the FBI by 12,711 agencies covering 86.6 percent of the
U.S. population. Of those agencies, 2,046 (16.1 percent) reported the 7,649
incidents. The remaining agencies (83.9 percent) reported that no hate crimes
occurred within their jurisdictions.
Hate Crime Statistics, 2004, is
available on the FBI's Web site at <www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm>.
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