Photo Courtesy of FBI
The bureau noted that hate crimes are the highest priority of its Civil Rights program.
By Forum Staff
The number of hate crime incidents reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation increased about 17 percent in 2017 compared with the previous year, according to theagency’s recently released Hate Crime Statistics report.
The annual analysis indicated that law enforcement reported 7,175 hate crimes to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting program in 2017, up from 6,121 in 2016. Although the numbers increased last year, so did the number of law enforcement agencies reporting hate crime data—with approximately 1,000 additional agencies contributing information about the offenses, victims, offenders, and locations of hate crimes, federal officials noted.
“Having an increase in participating agencies allows us to have a more complete picture of hate crime incidents throughout the nation,” said Amy Blasher, chief of the FBI’s Crime Statistics Management Unit.
According to the HCS, the most common bias categories in single-bias incidents were race/ethnicity/ancestry (59.6 percent), religion (20.6 percent), and sexual orientation (15.8 percent). In addition to the 7,106 single-bias incidents reported last year, there were also 69 multiple-bias hate crimes reported.
Approximately 5,000 of the hate crimes reported were categorized as crimes against persons, such as intimidation or assault. About 3,000 were considered crimes against property, such as vandalism, robbery, or burglary. Some hate crime incidents are classified as both crimes against persons and crimes against property, the bureau noted.
Additionally, 238 offenses were classified in the report as crimes against society. This category represents society’s prohibition against engaging in certain types of activity such as gambling, prostitution, and drug violations. These are typically victimless crimes in which property is not the object, officials said.
Of the 6,370 known offenders, 50.7 percent were white, and 21.3 percent were black or African-American. Other races accounted for the remaining known offenders: 0.8 percent were American Indian or Alaska Native; 0.7 percent were Asian; less than one-tenth of 1 percent were Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander; and 7.5 percent were of a group of multiple races. The race was unknown for 19.1 percent of offenders.
Of the 5,131 known offenders for whom ethnicity was reported, 25 percent were not Hispanic or Latino, 8.8 percent were Hispanic or Latino, and 1.6 percent were in a group of multiple ethnicities. Ethnicity was unknown for 64.5 percent of these offenders.
The FBI pointed out that hate crimes are the highest priority of its Civil Rights program, “not only because of the devastating impact they have on families and communities, but also because groups that preach hatred and intolerance can plant the seed of terrorism here in our country.”
