Section I: Hate Crime Statistics, 2001

Uniform Crime Reports: Hate Crime Statistics, Annual, 2001

Incidents and Offenses

A total of 11,987 law enforcement agencies in 49 states and the District of Columbia collectively reported 9,730 bias-motivated incidents during 2001. The majority of these were single-bias incidents, meaning that all offenses involved in the incident resulted from the same bias motivation. Multiple-bias incidents are those in which two or more offenses were committed as a result of two or more bias motivations. For 2001, participating agencies reported 9,721 single-bias and 9 multiple-bias incidents.

An examination of data from the single-bias incidents showed that 44.9 percent were motivated by racial prejudice, 21.6 percent were driven by a bias toward an ethnicity/national origin, 18.8 percent were motivated by religious intolerance, 14.3 percent by sexual-orientation bias, and 0.4 percent by disability bias. (Based on Table 1.)

The Hate Crime Data Collection Program codes all of the offenses that occur within hate crime incidents as belonging to one of three scoring categories--crimes against persons, crimes against property, or crimes against society. Of the 11,451 offenses reported, 67.8 percent were crimes against persons, 31.5 percent were crimes against property, and the remaining 0.7 percent were crimes against society. Within these offense types, intimidation was the most frequently reported of the crimes against persons at 55.9 percent. Destruction/damage/vandalism accounted for 83.7 percent of reported crimes against property. (Based on Table 2.)

A review of the total offenses (11,451) demonstrated that intimidation was the most frequently reported hate crime, accounting for 37.9 percent of the total. Destruction/damage/vandalism made up 26.4 percent; simple assault, 18.8 percent; aggravated assault, 10.8 percent. The remaining offenses accounted for 6.1 percent of the total. (Based on Table 2.)

Of the 11,430 offenses that occurred within the single-bias incidents, 46.3 percent were motivated by racial bias. Within those 5,290 offenses, investigators determined that 66.7 percent resulted from anti-black bias, 19.5 percent resulted from anti-white bias, 6.6 percent reflected an anti-Asian or anti-Pacific Islander bias, 5.3 percent resulted from bias directed against groups comprised of individuals of varying races (anti-multiracial group), and 1.8 percent were anti-American Indian or anti-Alaskan Native bias. (Based on Table 1.)

Among the 2,004 offenses motivated by religious prejudice (17.5 percent of the single-bias offense total), anti-Jewish bias made up 55.7 percent; anti-Islamic bias accounted for 27.2 percent; anti-Catholic bias, 1.9 percent; and anti-Protestant bias, 1.8 percent. Bias against other religious groups accounted for 10.5 percent. The remaining percent of offenses were motivated by a bias against groups of individuals of varying religious beliefs and anti-atheism/anti-agnosticism/etc. bias.

Sexual-orientation bias (1,592 offenses) made up 13.9 percent of all offenses within the single-bias incidents. Within this bias category, anti-male homosexual bias motivated 69.3 percent of offenses, anti-female homosexual bias accounted for 15.4 percent, and bias against homosexuals as a group, 13.0 percent. Anti-heterosexual and anti-bisexual bias accounted for the remainder. (Based on Table 1.)

An analysis of the data from those offenses resulting from bias against a particular ethnicity or national origin showed that anti-Hispanic bias accounted for 30.1 percent of the total. The remaining percent (69.9) of offenses were classified as bias against various other ethnicities or national origins. (Based on Table 1.)

Thirty-seven of the total offenses associated with single-bias incidents were motivated by anti-disability bias of which 25 were attributed to an anti-mental disability bias. (Based on Table 1.)

A review of the data by offense type and bias motivation revealed that there were 10 hate-motivated murders during 2001. Of these, 5 were the result of an ethnicity or national-origin bias, 4 were driven by racism, and 1 was attributed to a sexual-orientation bias. Law enforcement attributed 2 forcible rapes to racial prejudice, 1 to sexual-orientation bias, and 1 to an anti-ethnicity or national-origin bias. Concerning the offense of robbery, investigators determined that 66 robberies were racially motivated and 48 were motivated by a bias against a sexual orientation. Thirty-four arson offenses were traced to the offenders' religious intolerance, 26 to racial prejudice, and 22 to bias against an ethnicity or national origin. (See Table 4.)

Victims

The term victim throughout this publication refers to a person, business, institution, or society as a whole, unless otherwise specified.

In 2001, there were 12,020 victims of 11,451 hate crime offenses. Victims of racial bias accounted for 46.2 percent of the 11,998 victims of single-bias hate crime incidents. Victims of ethnicity or national-origin bias accounted for 22.0 percent, victims of religious bias comprised 17.7 percent, victims of sexual-orientation bias made up 13.9 percent, and victims of disability bias 0.3 percent. There were 22 victims of multiple-bias incidents in 2001. (Based on Table 1.)