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Home Hate Crime 2017 Topic Pages Incidents and Offenses

Incidents and Offenses

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The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program collects data about both single-bias and multiple-bias hate crimes. For each offense type reported, law enforcement must indicate at least one bias motivation. A single-bias incident is defined as an incident in which one or more offense types are motivated by the same bias. As of 2013, a multiple-bias incident is defined as an incident in which one or more offense types are motivated by two or more biases.

Important note about rape data

In 2013, the FBI’s UCR Program initiated the collection of rape data under a revised definition within the Summary Reporting System. The term “forcible” was removed from the offense name, and the definition was changed to “penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”

In 2016, the FBI Director approved the recommendation to discontinue the reporting of rape data using the UCR legacy definition beginning in 2017.

The offenses of fondling, incest, and statutory rape are included in the crimes against persons, other category.

Rape totals are provided in Tables 2, 3, 4, 7, and 11 of Hate Crime Statistics, 2017. (See the Methodology for more information about this program change as well as others.)

Overview

  • In 2017, 16,149 law enforcement agencies participated in the Hate Crime Statistics Program. Of these agencies, 2,040 reported 7,175 hate crime incidents involving 8,437 offenses. (See Tables 1 and 12.)
  • There were 7,106 single-bias incidents that involved 8,126 offenses, 8,493 victims, and 6,307 known offenders. (See Table 1.)
  • The 69 multiple-bias incidents reported in 2017 involved 311 offenses, 335 victims, and 63 known offenders. (See Table 1.)

Single-bias incidents (Based on Table 1.)

Analysis of the 7,106 single-bias incidents reported in 2017 revealed that:

  • 58.1 percent were motivated by a race/ethnicity/ancestry bias.
  • 22.0 percent were prompted by religious bias.
  • 15.9 percent resulted from sexual-orientation bias.
  • 1.7 percent were motivated by gender-identity bias.
  • 1.6 percent were prompted by disability bias.
  • 0.6 percent (46 incidents) were motivated by gender bias.

Offenses by bias motivation within incidents (Based on Table 1.)

Of the 8,126 single-bias hate crime offenses reported in the above incidents:

  • 59.5 percent stemmed from a race/ethnicity/ancestry bias.
  • 20.7 percent were motivated by religious bias.
  • 16.0 percent resulted from sexual-orientation bias.
  • 1.6 percent resulted from bias against disabilities.
  • 1.6 percent stemmed from gender-identity bias.
  • 0.7 percent (53 offenses) were prompted by gender bias.

Race/ethnicity/ancestry bias (Based on Table 1.)

In 2017, law enforcement agencies reported that 4,832 single-bias hate crime offenses were motivated by race/ethnicity/ancestry. Of these offenses:

  • 48.8 percent were motivated by anti-Black or African American bias.
  • 17.5 percent stemmed from anti-White bias.
  • 10.9 percent were classified as anti-Hispanic or Latino bias.
  • 5.8 percent were motivated by anti-American Indian or Alaska Native bias.
  • 4.4 percent were a result of bias against groups of individuals consisting of more than one race (anti-multiple races, group).
  • 3.1 percent resulted from anti-Asian bias.
  • 2.6 percent were classified as anti-Arab bias.
  • 0.4 percent (17 offenses) were motivated by bias of anti-Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.
  • 6.5 percent were the result of an anti-Other Race/Ethnicity/Ancestry bias.

Religious bias (Based on Table 1.)

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,679 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-biased offenses showed:

  • 58.1 percent were anti-Jewish.
  • 18.7 percent were anti-Islamic (Muslim).
  • 4.5 percent were anti-Catholic.
  • 3.2 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
  • 2.4 percent were anti-Protestant.
  • 1.8 percent were anti-Other Christian.
  • 1.4 percent were anti-Sikh.
  • 1.4 percent were anti-Eastern Orthodox (Russian, Greek, Other).
  • 0.9 percent (15 offenses) were anti-Mormon
  • 0.9 percent (15 offenses) were anti-Hindu.
  • 0.8 percent (13 offenses) were anti-Jehovah’s Witness.
  • 0.5 percent (9 offenses) was anti-Buddhist.
  • 0.5 percent (8 offenses) were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.
  • 4.9 percent were anti-other (unspecified) religion.

Sexual-orientation bias (Based on Table 1.)

In 2017, law enforcement agencies reported 1,303 hate crime offenses based on sexual-orientation bias. Of these offenses:

  • 58.2 percent were classified as anti-gay (male) bias.
  • 24.6 percent were prompted by an anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (mixed group) bias.
  • 12.2 percent were classified as anti-lesbian bias.
  • 2.8 percent were the result of an anti-heterosexual bias.
  • 2.1 percent were classified as anti-bisexual bias.

Gender-identity bias (See Table 1.)

Of the single-bias incidents, 131 offenses were a result of gender-identity bias. Of these offenses:

  • 118 were anti-transgender.
  • 13 were anti-gender non-conforming.

Disability bias (See Table 1.)

There were 128 reported hate crime offenses committed based on disability bias. Of these:

  • 93 offenses were classified as anti-mental disability.
  • 35 offenses were reported as anti-physical disability.

Gender bias (See Table 1.)

There were 53 offenses of gender bias reported in 2017. Of these:

  • 28 were anti-female.
  • 25 were anti-male.

By offense types (Based on Table 2.)

Of the 8,437 reported hate crime offenses in 2017:

  • 27.6 percent were destruction/damage/vandalism
  • 27.1 percent were intimidation.
  • 20.7 percent were simple assault.
  • 11.7 percent were aggravated assault.
  • The remaining offenses included additional crimes against persons, property, and society.

Offenses by crime category (Based on Table 2.)

Among the 8,437 hate crime offenses reported:

  • 60.3 percent were crimes against persons.
  • 36.9 percent were crimes against property.
  • The remaining offenses were crimes against society. (See Data Collection in Methodology.)

Crimes against persons (Based on Table 2.)

Law enforcement reported 5,084 hate crime offenses as crimes against persons. By offense type:

  • 44.9 percent were intimidation.
  • 34.3 percent were simple assault.
  • 19.5 percent were aggravated assault.
  • 0.7 percent consisted of 15 murders and 23 rapes. (See Methodology for more details about changes in the definition of rape in the UCR Program.)
  • 1 offense was reported as human trafficking, commercial sex acts.
  • 0.5 percent involved the offense category other, which is collected only in NIBRS.

Crimes against property (Based on Table 2.)

  • The majority of the 3,115 hate crime offenses that were crimes against property (74.6 percent) were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism.
  • The remaining 25.4 percent of crimes against property consisted of robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and other crimes.

Crimes against society (See Table 2.)

  • There were 238 offenses defined as crimes against society (e.g., drug or narcotic offenses or prostitution).

By victim type (Based on Table 6.)

When considering the 8,437 hate crime offenses and their targeted victims:

  • 78.3 percent were directed at individuals.
  • 6.3 percent were against businesses or financial institutions.
  • 3.4 percent were against government entities.
  • 2.8 percent were against society/public
  • 2.1 percent were against religious organizations.
  • The remaining 7.1 percent were directed at other/unknown/multiple victim types.