FBI Hate Crime Statistics 2009

Background

Congress mandates the collection of hate crime data

On April 23, 1990, Congress passed the Hate Crime Statistics Act, which required the Attorney General to collect data “about crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.” The Attorney General delegated the responsibilities of developing the procedures for implementing, collecting, and managing hate crime data to the Director of the FBI, who in turn, assigned the tasks to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. Under the direction of the Attorney General and with the cooperation and assistance of many local and state law enforcement agencies, the UCR Program created a hate crime data collection to comply with the congressional mandate.

The first hate crime publications

The UCR Program’s first publication on the subject was Hate Crime Statistics, 1990: A Resource Book, which was a compilation of hate crime data reported by 11 states that had collected the information under state authority in 1990 and were willing to offer their data as a prototype. The UCR Program continued to work with agencies familiar with investigating hate crimes and collecting related information so that it could develop and implement a more uniform method of data collection on a nationwide scale. Hate Crime Statistics, 1992, presented the first published data reported by law enforcement agencies across the country that participated in the UCR Hate Crime Statistics Program.

Subsequent changes to hate crime data collection

In September 1994, lawmakers amended the Hate Crime Statistics Act to include bias against persons with disabilities by passing the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. The FBI started gathering data for the additional bias type on January 1, 1997.
The Church Arson Prevention Act, which was signed into law in July 1996, removed the sunset clause from the original statute and mandated that the collection of hate crime data become a permanent part of the UCR Program.
In 2009, Congress further amended the Hate Crime Statistics Act by passing the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act. The amendment includes the collection of data for crimes motivated by bias against a particular gender and gender identity, as well as for crimes committed by, and crimes directed against, juveniles. The FBI is currently making plans to implement changes to collect these data.

- Collection Design
- Data Provided
- Participation
- Incidents & Offenses
- Victims
- Offenders
- Tables

Collection design

The designers of the Hate Crime Statistics Program sought to capture information about the types of bias that motivate crimes, the nature of the offenses, and some information about the victims and offenders. In creating the program, the designers recognized that hate crimes are not separate, distinct crimes; instead, they are traditional offenses motivated by the offender’s bias (for example, an offender assaults a victim because of a bias against the victim’s race). After much consideration, the developers agreed that hate crime data could be derived by capturing the additional element of bias in those offenses already being reported to the UCR Program. Attaching the collection of hate crime statistics to the established UCR data collection procedures, they concluded, would fulfill the directives of the Hate Crime Statistics Act without placing an undue additional reporting burden on law enforcement and, in time, would develop a substantial body of data about the nature and frequency of bias crimes occurring throughout the Nation.

Data provided

The hate crime data in this Web publication comprise a subset of information that law enforcement agencies submit to the UCR Program. The types of hate crimes reported to the program (i.e., the biases that motivated the crimes) are further broken down into more specific categories. As collected for each hate crime incident, the aggregate data in this report include the following: offense type, location, bias motivation, victim type, number of individual victims, number of offenders, and the race of the offenders.

Incidents and offenses—Crimes reported to the FBI involve those motivated by biases based on race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, and disability. Plans are underway to also allow the reporting of crimes motivated by biases based on gender and gender identity, as well as crimes committed by, and crimes directed against, juveniles.
Victims—The victim of a hate crime may be an individual, a business, an institution, or society as a whole.
Offenders—Law enforcement specifies the number of offenders and, when possible, the race of the offender or offenders as a group.
Location type—Currently, law enforcement may specify one of 25 location designations, e.g., residences or homes, schools or colleges, and parking lots or garages. Plans are underway to allow the reporting of several additional location designations.
Hate crime by jurisdiction—Includes data about hate crimes by state and agency.

Participation

Law enforcement’s support

Law enforcement’s support and participation have been the most vital factors in moving the hate crime data collection effort from concept to reality. The International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Sheriffs’ Association, the former UCR Data Providers’ Advisory Policy Board (which is now part of the Criminal Justice Information Services Advisory Policy Board), the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training, and the Association of State UCR Programs all have endorsed the UCR Program’s Hate Crime Statistics Program. In addition to this support, thousands of law enforcement agencies nationwide make crucial contributions to the program’s success as the officers within these agencies investigate offenses and report as known hate crimes those they determine were motivated by biases.

Agencies contributing data

Agencies that participated in the Hate Crime Statistics Program in 2009 represented nearly 279 million inhabitants, or 90.9 percent of the Nation’s population, and their jurisdictions covered 49 states and the District of Columbia.

Incidents & Offenses

For each hate crime 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 2009, 2,034 law enforcement agencies reported 6,604 hate crime incidents involving 7,789 offenses.
There were 6,598 single-bias incidents that involved 7,775 offenses, 8,322 victims, and 6,219 offenders.
The 6 multiple-bias incidents reported in 2009 involved 14 offenses, 14 victims, and 6 offenders.

Single-bias incidents

An analysis of the 6,598 single-bias incidents reported in 2009 showed the following:

48.5 percent were motivated by racial bias.
19.7 percent resulted from religious bias.
18.5 percent were linked to sexual-orientation bias.
11.8 percent stemmed from ethnicity/national origin bias.
1.5 percent involved disability bias.

Offenses by bias motivation within incidents

Of the 7,775 single-bias hate crime offenses reported in the above incidents:

49.1 percent stemmed from racial bias.
18.5 percent were motivated by sexual-orientation bias.
17.7 percent resulted from religious bias.
13.5 percent were prompted by ethnicity/national origin bias.
1.2 percent were from biases against disabilities.

Racial bias

In 2009, law enforcement agencies reported that 3,816 single-bias hate crime offenses were racially motivated. Of these offenses:

71.4 percent were motivated by anti-black bias.
17.1 percent resulted from anti-white bias.
5.5 percent occurred because of biases against groups of individuals consisting of more than one race (anti-multiple races, group).
3.9 percent resulted from anti-Asian/Pacific Islander bias.
2.2 percent were motivated by anti-American Indian/Alaskan Native bias.

Religious bias

Law enforcement agencies reported 1,376 hate crimes motivated by religious bias. A breakdown of biases for these offenses showed:

70.1 percent were anti-Jewish.
9.3 percent were anti-Islamic.
8.6 percent were anti-other religion.
4.4 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
4.0 percent were anti-Catholic.
2.9 percent were anti-Protestant.
0.7 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.

Sexual-orientation bias

Law enforcement agencies reported 1,436 hate crime offenses based on sexual-orientation bias. Of these offenses:

55.6 percent were motivated by anti-male homosexual bias.
26.2 percent resulted from anti-homosexual bias.
15.0 percent were prompted by anti-female homosexual bias.
1.7 percent were classified as anti-bisexual bias.
1.5 percent were the result of anti-heterosexual bias.

Ethnicity/national origin bias

In 2009, law enforcement reported 1,050 offenses were committed based on the perceived ethnicity or national origin of the victim. Of these offenses:

62.3 percent were motivated by anti-Hispanic bias.
37.7 percent resulted from anti-other ethnicity/national origin bias.

Disability bias

There were 97 reported hate crime offenses committed based on disability bias. Of these:

72 offenses were prompted by anti-mental disability bias.
25 offenses were the result of anti-physical disability bias.

By offense type

Of the 7,789 reported hate crime offenses in 2009:

31.6 percent were destruction/damage/vandalism.
27.7 percent were intimidation.
21.7 percent were simple assault.
11.7 percent were aggravated assault.
7.2 percent were comprised of additional crimes against persons, property, and society.

Offenses by crime category

Of the 7,789 hate crime offenses reported:

61.5 percent were crimes against persons.
38.1 percent were crimes against property.
The remainder were crimes against society.

Crimes against persons

Law enforcement reported 4,793 hate crime offenses as crimes against persons. By offense type:

45.0 percent were intimidation.
35.3 percent were simple assault.
19.1 percent were aggravated assault.
0.4 percent were the violent crimes of murder (8 offenses) and forcible rape (9 offenses).
0.3 percent involved the offense category other, which is collected only in the National Incident-Based Reporting System.

Crimes against property

Of the 2,970 hate crime offenses that were crimes against property, 83.0 percent were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism.
The remaining 17.0 percent of crimes against property consisted of robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and other crimes.

Crimes against society

There were 26 offenses defined as crimes against society (e.g., drug or narcotic offenses or prostitution).

By victim type

When considering the type of victims among property crimes:

48.5 percent were committed against individuals.
11.5 percent were directed at businesses or financial institutions.
9.8 percent were against government.
8.0 percent were aimed at religious organizations.
The remaining 22.2 percent were directed at other, multiple, or unknown victim types.

Victims

In the Uniform Crime Reporting Program, the victim of a hate crime may be an individual, a business, an institution, or society as a whole. In 2009, the Nation’s law enforcement agencies reported that there were 8,336 victims of hate crimes. Of these victims, 14 were victimized in 6 separate multiple-bias incidents.

Offenders

Law enforcement agencies reporting hate crime data to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program identified 6,225 known offenders in 6,604 bias-motivated incidents in 2009. In the UCR Program, the term known offender does not imply that the suspect’s identity is known; rather, the term indicates that some aspect of the suspect was identified, thus distinguishing the suspect from an unknown offender. Law enforcement agencies specify the number of offenders and, when possible, the race of the offender or offenders as a group.

Tables

Incidents, Offenses, Victims, and Known Offenders by Bias Motivation, 2009

Bias motivation	Incidents	Offenses	Victims¹	Known offenders²
Total	6,604	7,789	8,336	6,225
Single-Bias Incidents	6,598	7,775	8,322	6,219
Race:	3,199	3,816	4,057	3,241
Anti-White	545	652	668	753
Anti-Black	2,284	2,724	2,902	2,160
Anti-American Indian/Alaskan Native	65	84	87	88
Anti-Asian/Pacific Islander	126	147	149	108
Anti-Multiple Races, Group	179	209	251	132
Religion:	1,303	1,376	1,575	586
Anti-Jewish	931	964	1,132	353
Anti-Catholic	51	55	59	25
Anti-Protestant	38	40	42	17
Anti-Islamic	107	128	132	95
Anti-Other Religion	109	119	131	51
Anti-Multiple Religions, Group	57	60	68	38
Anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.	10	10	11	7
Sexual Orientation:	1,223	1,436	1,482	1,394
Anti-Male Homosexual	682	798	817	817
Anti-Female Homosexual	185	216	227	197
Anti-Homosexual	312	376	391	349
Anti-Heterosexual	21	21	21	14
Anti-Bisexual	23	25	26	17
Ethnicity/National Origin:	777	1,050	1,109	934
Anti-Hispanic	483	654	692	649
Anti-Other Ethnicity/National Origin	294	396	417	285
Disability:	96	97	99	64
Anti-Physical	25	25	25	25
Anti-Mental	71	72	74	39
Multiple-Bias Incidents³	6	14	14	6

¹The term victim may refer to a person, business, institution, or society as a whole.
²The term known offender does not imply that the identity of the suspect is known, but only that an attribute of the suspect has been identified, which distinguishes him/her from an unknown offender.
³In a multiple-bias incident, two conditions must be met: (a) more than one offense type must occur in the incident and (b) at least two offense types must be motivated by different biases.

Incidents, Offenses, Victims, and Known Offenders by Offense Type, 2009

Offense type	Incidents¹	Offenses	Victims²	Known offenders³
Total	6,604	7,789	8,336	6,225
Crimes against persons:	3,875	4,793	4,793	5,136
Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter	8	8	8	47
Forcible rape	9	9	9	16
Aggravated assault	699	914	914	1,208
Simple assault	1,446	1,691	1,691	2,072
Intimidation	1,700	2,158	2,158	1,778
Other⁴	13	13	13	15
Crimes against property:	2,970	2,970	3,517	1,453
Robbery	124	124	142	293
Burglary	137	137	157	78
Larceny-theft	163	163	174	126
Motor vehicle theft	11	11	11	7
Arson	41	41	61	22
Destruction/damage/vandalism	2,465	2,465	2,943	898
Other⁴	29	29	29	29
Crimes against society⁴	26	26	26	34

¹ The actual number of incidents is 6,604. However, the column figures will not add to the total because incidents may include more than one offense type, and these are counted in each appropriate offense type category.
²The term victim may refer to a person, business, institution, or society as a whole.
³The term known offender does not imply that the identity of the suspect is known, but only that an attribute of the suspect has been identified, which distinguishes him/her from an unknown offender. The actual number of known offenders is 6,225. However, the column figures will not add to the total because some offenders are responsible for more than one offense type, and they are, therefore, counted more than once in this table.
⁴ Includes additional offenses collected in the National Incident-Based Reporting System.

Source: FBI