Photo Courtesy of FBI
More than 16,000 law enforcement agencies reported 7,120 hate crimes to the FBI last year.
By Michael V. Cusenza
The number of hate crime incidents reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation decreased slightly from 2017 to 2018, according to a recently released agency report.
More than 16,000 law enforcement agencies reported 7,120 hate crimes to the FBI last year, down slightly from the 7,175 incidents reported in 2017. According to the analysis, the 7,120 criminal incidents and 8,496 related offenses as being motivated by bias toward race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity.
According to the FBI, there were 7,036 single-bias incidents involving 8,646 victims; 59.6 percent of victims were targeted because of the offenders’ race/ethnicity/ancestry bias; 18.7 percent were targeted because of the offenders’ religious bias; 16.7 percent were victimized because of the offenders’ sexual-orientation bias; 2.2 percent were targeted because of the offenders’ gender identity bias; 2.1 percent were victimized because of the offenders’ disability bias; and 0.7 percent were victimized because of the offenders’ gender bias. There were 84 multiple-bias hate crime incidents, which involved 173 victims.
According to the report, of the 5,566 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons in 2018, 46 percent were for intimidation, 34 percent were for simple assault, and 18.4 percent were for aggravated assault. Twenty-four murders and 22 rapes were reported as hate crimes. The remaining 39 hate crime offenses were reported in the category of other, FBI officials said.
There were 2,641 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property, according to the agency’s analysis. The majority of these (71 percent) were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism. Robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and other offenses accounted for the remaining 29.0 percent of crimes against property.
According to the report, of the 6,266 known offenders, 53.6 percent were white, and 24 percent were black or African American. Other races accounted for the remaining known offenders: 1.3 percent were Asian; 1.0 percent were American Indian or Alaska Native; 0.3 percent were Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander; and 6.9 percent were of a group of multiple races. The race was unknown for 12.9 percent.
Of the 5,349 known offenders for whom ethnicity was reported, 29.9 percent were not Hispanic or Latino, 8.9 percent were Hispanic or Latino, and 1.6 percent were in a group of multiple ethnicities. Ethnicity was unknown for 59.5 percent of these offenders.
Of the 5,589 known offenders for whom ages were known, 84.7 percent were 18 years of age or older.
Earlier this year, in its annual Audit of Anti-Semitic incidents, the Anti-Defamation League noted that anti-Semitic assaults doubled in 2018, while attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions across the country remained at near-historic levels. Additionally, according to the ADL analysis, in 2018, New York reported the second-highest number of anti-Semitic incidents (340) in the country.
This summer, the NYPD reported that the city was experiencing an alarming uptick in hate crimes. As of June 1, the department had recorded 184 total hate crimes year to date, compared to 112 this time last year—an increase of 73 reported incidents, or 64 percent. Investigators have made 75 hate crime-related arrests so far this year, compared to 63 this time in 2018, a 19-percent jump.
