FBI: Hate Crimes, 2009

I know, all crimes are hate crimes but here is what the FBI reports about the categories of crimes involving bias toward some characteristic of the victim:

Of the 6,598 single-bias incidents, 48.5 percent were motivated by a racial bias, 19.7 percent were motivated by a religious bias, 18.5 percent were motivated by a sexual-orientation bias, and 11.8 percent were motivated by an ethnicity/national origin bias. Bias against a disability accounted for 1.5 percent of single-bias incidents.

Two quick observations – Sadly racism is alive. Also, seems to me that people of faith and sexual minorites have some common ground here.

22 thoughts on “FBI: Hate Crimes, 2009”

  1. Thanks, Timothy. Depressing that anti-semitism is still so prevalent.

    I’m not sure why warren thinks these figures should give us something in common. Comparing the size of the gay population to its share of hate crimes I’d say we were experiencing these crimes at much higher rates than other groups.

  2. As Timothy somewhat pointed out, hate crimes against religion are more often visited on a symbol of that religion, generally property. Only 30% of religiously motivated hate crimes were interpersonal offenses; of those 84% were against Jews and Muslims (see: Table 4). Compare that to crimes based on sexal orientation where 73% were interpersonal offenses.

  3. The guys who broke in to our apt weren’t acting out of hate. They wanted the stereo. The teens who came from Staten Island to Brooklyn Heights where they beat an acquaintance of ours nearly to death gave as their reason that they wanted to hurt some queers. I would say they were acting from hatred of one class of persons.

    I find these statistics uninformative. I would imagine that the hate crimes against religion were mostly against moslems, though perhaps not. I would also imagine that most were against property and not individuals. I’ve yet to hear of and evangelical Christians being beaten up in parking lots or on their way to church.

    The Southern Poverty Law Center now adds AFA And FRC – among others – to its list of hate groups. Outraged screams from Tony Perkins due any minute.

  4. I know, all crimes are hate crimes…

    Strongly disagree with this. Some are crimes of fear, jealousy, greed, or selfishness. Some crimes are simply careless or are committed without any emotion or malice.

    A hate crime is usually defined by state law as one that involves threats, harassment, or physical harm and is motivated by prejudice against someone’s race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, sexual orientation or physical or mental disability.

    http://definitions.uslegal.com/h/hate-crime/

  5. Interesting, of the anti-religion crimes, 70% were anti-Jewsin, 9% anti-muslim, and only 95 incidents (7%) were either anti-Catholic or anti-Protestant

  6. I know, all crimes are hate crimes…

    Strongly disagree with this. Some are crimes of fear, jealousy, greed, or selfishness. Some crimes are simply careless or are committed without any emotion or malice.

    A hate crime is usually defined by state law as one that involves threats, harassment, or physical harm and is motivated by prejudice against someone’s race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, sexual orientation or physical or mental disability.

    http://definitions.uslegal.com/h/hate-crime/

  7. As Timothy somewhat pointed out, hate crimes against religion are more often visited on a symbol of that religion, generally property. Only 30% of religiously motivated hate crimes were interpersonal offenses; of those 84% were against Jews and Muslims (see: Table 4). Compare that to crimes based on sexal orientation where 73% were interpersonal offenses.

  8. GLB or GLBT? Because most murders were of trans women.

    These are not included in the statistics, because until the recent signing of the Matthew Shephard Act, the FBI weren’t allowed to collect the data on trans victims.

    “0.4 percent were the violent crimes of murder (8 offenses) and forcible rape (9 offenses).”

    We know of at least 20 cases of trans people being murdered in hate crimes in 2009. Trans people bear the brunt of the most violent attacks, those involving murder, torture, and mutilation.

    There are more murders of trans women of colour than all other categories put together. It would not surprise me if the same was true of violent assaults, often by local law enforcement – who comprise the 4th largest category of offenders.

    From my own viewpoint, the most valuable part of the Matthew Shepard act was that it required such violence to be included in the FBI statistics from 2010. Before then, it was deliberately and as a matter of public policy, excluded.

  9. Thanks, Timothy. Depressing that anti-semitism is still so prevalent.

    I’m not sure why warren thinks these figures should give us something in common. Comparing the size of the gay population to its share of hate crimes I’d say we were experiencing these crimes at much higher rates than other groups.

  10. stephen,

    there were zero violent hate crimes against Protestants and 5 against Catholics (4 simple assault, 1 violent assault). There were 717 instances of violent hate crimes against GLB people.

  11. Interesting, of the anti-religion crimes, 70% were anti-Jewsin, 9% anti-muslim, and only 95 incidents (7%) were either anti-Catholic or anti-Protestant

  12. The guys who broke in to our apt weren’t acting out of hate. They wanted the stereo. The teens who came from Staten Island to Brooklyn Heights where they beat an acquaintance of ours nearly to death gave as their reason that they wanted to hurt some queers. I would say they were acting from hatred of one class of persons.

    I find these statistics uninformative. I would imagine that the hate crimes against religion were mostly against moslems, though perhaps not. I would also imagine that most were against property and not individuals. I’ve yet to hear of and evangelical Christians being beaten up in parking lots or on their way to church.

    The Southern Poverty Law Center now adds AFA And FRC – among others – to its list of hate groups. Outraged screams from Tony Perkins due any minute.

  13. GLB or GLBT? Because most murders were of trans women.

    These are not included in the statistics, because until the recent signing of the Matthew Shephard Act, the FBI weren’t allowed to collect the data on trans victims.

    “0.4 percent were the violent crimes of murder (8 offenses) and forcible rape (9 offenses).”

    We know of at least 20 cases of trans people being murdered in hate crimes in 2009. Trans people bear the brunt of the most violent attacks, those involving murder, torture, and mutilation.

    There are more murders of trans women of colour than all other categories put together. It would not surprise me if the same was true of violent assaults, often by local law enforcement – who comprise the 4th largest category of offenders.

    From my own viewpoint, the most valuable part of the Matthew Shepard act was that it required such violence to be included in the FBI statistics from 2010. Before then, it was deliberately and as a matter of public policy, excluded.

  14. stephen,

    there were zero violent hate crimes against Protestants and 5 against Catholics (4 simple assault, 1 violent assault). There were 717 instances of violent hate crimes against GLB people.

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