By Forum Staff
The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday released Hate Crime Statistics, 2019, the Uniform Crime Reporting Program’s latest compilation about bias-motivated incidents throughout the nation. The 2019 data, submitted by 15,588 law enforcement agencies, provide information about the offenses, victims, offenders, and locations of hate crimes, FBI officials said.
Law enforcement agencies submitted incident reports involving 7,314 criminal incidents and 8,559 related offenses as being motivated by bias toward race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity. Please note the UCR Program does not estimate offenses for the jurisdictions of agencies that do not submit reports. Highlights of Hate Crime Statistics, 2019 follow. (Due to rounding, percentage breakdowns may not add to 100 percent.)
Victims of Hate Crime Incidents
There were 7,103 single-bias incidents involving 8,552 victims. A percent distribution of victims by bias type shows that 57.6 percent of victims were targeted because of the offenders’ race/ethnicity/ancestry bias; 20.1 percent were targeted because of the offenders’ religious bias; 16.7 percent were victimized because of the offenders’ sexual-orientation bias; 2.7 percent were targeted because of the offenders’ gender identity bias; 2 percent were victimized because of the offenders’ disability bias; and 0.9% were victimized because of the offenders’ gender bias.
There were 211 multiple-bias hate crime incidents, which involved 260 victims.
Offenses by Crime Category
Of the 5,512 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons in 2019, 40 percent were for intimidation, 36.7 percent were for simple assault, and 21 percent were for aggravated assault. Fifty-one (51) murders; 30 rapes; and three offenses of human trafficking (commercial sex acts) were reported as hate crimes. The remaining 41 hate crime offenses were reported in the category of other.
There were 2,811 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property. The majority of these (76.6 percent) were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism. Robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and other offenses accounted for the remaining 23.4 peercent of crimes against property.
Two hundred thirty-six (236) additional offenses were classified as crimes against society. This crime 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.
Known Offenders
In the UCR Program, the term known offender does not imply that the suspect’s identity is known; rather, the term indicates that some aspect of the suspect was identified, thus distinguishing the suspect from an unknown offender. Law enforcement agencies specify the number of offenders and, when possible, the race of the offender or offenders as a group. Beginning in 2013, law enforcement began reporting whether suspects were juveniles or adults, as well as the suspect’s ethnicity when possible.
Of the 6,406 known offenders, 52.5 percent were white, and 23.9 percent were Black or African American. Other races accounted for the remaining known offenders: 1.1 percent were American Indian or Alaska Native, 0.9 percent were Asian, 0.3% were Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and 6.6 percent were of a group of multiple races. The race was unknown for 14.6 percent.
Of the 5,443 known offenders for whom ethnicity was reported, 33.1 percent were Not Hispanic or Latino, 10 percent were Hispanic or Latino, and 1.9 percent were in a group of multiple ethnicities. Ethnicity was unknown for 55 percent of these offenders.
Of the 5,599 known offenders for whom ages were known, 84.6 percent were 18 years of age or older.
