Section I—Hate Crime Statistics

Uniform Crime Reports: Hate Crime Statistics, Annual, 2002

Incidents and Offenses

A total of 12,073 law enforcement agencies reported 7,462 hate crime incidents in 2002. The majority of these, 7,459, were single-bias incidents; that is, all the offenses within each incident resulted from one type of bias. The 3 remaining incidents were classified as multiple-bias, meaning that those incidents involved 2 or more offense types motivated by 2 or more biases. (See Table 1.)

Racial bias accounted for 48.8 percent of the single-bias incidents. Religious bias motivated 19.1 percent of incidents, sexual-orientation bias provoked 16.7 percent, and bias against an ethnicity or national origin caused 14.8 percent. Bias against a physical or mental disability was the basis for 0.6 percent of the single-bias incidents. (Based on Table 1.)

Within the 7,462 hate crime incidents reported during 2002, law enforcement identified 7,459 single-bias incidents involving 8,825 offenses. Within the 3 multiple-bias incidents, they identified 7 offenses. (See Table 1.) The UCR hate crime program assigns all bias-motivated offenses to one of three categories: crimes against persons, crimes against property, and crimes against society. (See Methodology.) For 2002, crimes against persons made up 67.5 percent of the identified offenses, and crimes against property accounted for 32.0 percent. The remainder (0.6 percent) were crimes against society. (Based on Table 2.)

By offense type, intimidation was the most often reported offense, accounting for 35.2 percent of the total bias-motivated offenses. Destruction/damage/vandalism accounted for 26.6 percent of the total reported offenses; simple assault, 20.3 percent; and aggravated assault, 11.7 percent. The remaining offenses collectively made up 6.3 percent of the total. (Based on Table 2.)

Intimidation was also the most frequently reported of the crimes against persons, accounting for 52.1 percent of that total. Of reported crimes against property, 83.1 percent of the offenses involved destruction/damage/vandalism. (Based on Table 2.)

Nearly half (49.8 percent) of the 8,825 single-bias offenses reported for 2002 were racially motivated. Religious bias was the instigation for 17.9 percent of the offenses, sexual-orientation bias was the motivation for 16.6 percent, and ethnicity/national origin bias was the cause of 15.2 percent. Bias against a physical or mental disability was the source of less than 1 percent of the offenses within single-bias incidents--0.5 percent. (Based on Table 1.)

A review of the 4,393 offenses motivated by racial bias showed that 67.5 percent resulted from an anti-black bias, 20.2 percent resulted from an anti-white bias, and 6.1 percent resulted from bias against Asians or Pacific Islanders. The data further revealed that 4.6 percent of the offenses were committed against groups comprised of varying races (anti-multiple races, group); 1.5 percent targeted American Indians or Alaskan Natives. (Based on Table 1.)

Anti-Jewish bias accounted for 65.9 percent of the 1,576 reported offenses rooted in religious bias. Anti-Islamic bias made up 10.8 percent of these types of offenses, and bias against other, unspecified religious groups (anti-other religion) made up 13.8 percent. Of the remainder, 3.7 percent of the offenses were anti-Catholic, 3.6 percent were anti-Protestant, 2.0 percent were against groups made up of multiple religions (anti-multiple religions, group), and 0.2 percent were anti-atheism or anti-agnosticism. (Based on Table 1.)

The 2002 data included reports of 1,464 offenses caused by a sexual-orientation bias. Of these, male homosexuals were the targets of 65.4 percent of the attacks. Law enforcement attributed the remaining offenses to anti-homosexual bias, 17.7 percent; anti-female homosexual bias, 14.1 percent; anti-heterosexual bias, 1.8 percent; and anti-bisexual bias, 1.0 percent. (Based on Table 1.)

A review of the 1,345 offenses that investigators determined were the result of an ethnicity or national origin bias indicated that 44.7 percent were associated with an anti-Hispanic prejudice. Anti-other ethnicity/national origin bias accounted for 55.3 percent of these offenses. (Based on Table 1.)

Law enforcement reported 47 offenses motivated by a disability bias and attributed more than half of those (57.4 percent) to a mental disability bias. Bias against physical disabilities made up the remainder. (Based on Table 1.)

A review of the 2002 data by offense type and bias motivation revealed 11 hate motivated homicides. Law enforcement attributed 4 of the murders to racial prejudice, 4 to sexual-orientation bias, 2 to a bias against the victim's ethnicity or national origin, and 1 to a bias against the victim's religious preference. (See Table 4.)

Investigators determined that 8 forcible rapes were motivated by bias during 2002. Three forcible rapes resulted from a sexual-orientation bias, 2 from an ethnicity or national origin bias; 2 from a racial bias; and 1 from a disability bias. (See Table 4.)

Officers identified bias as a motivation for 130 robberies in single-bias incidents; 48 stemmed from a racial bias, 43 from a sexual-orientation bias, 35 from an ethnicity or national origin bias, and 4 from a religious bias. (See Table 4.)