Crimes based on race, religion or disabilities remained steady in last 2 years, says a report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The majority of the hate crimes were committed by persons of Caucasian descent.

After 9-11, the statistics on hate crime have taken on added importance as several minorities, particularly those hailing from the Middle East or even South Asia complained of rising violence and discrimination.

‘The Hate Crime Statistics, 2003’ report showed there were 7,489 bias-motivated incidents in 2003, compared to 7,462 in 2002. Bias crimes included crimes based on antagonism toward a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or physical or mental disability. Such feelings prompted crimes against 9,100 victims during 2003.

The report, published by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, included data aggregated from hate crime reports submitted by local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies throughout the nation. The report documented 7,489 bias-motivated incidents.

In 2002, a total of 12,073 law enforcement agencies reported 7,462 hate crime incidents. A majority of them, 7,459, were single-bias incidents; that is, all the offenses within each incident resulted from one type of bias. In 2003, the number of law-enforcement agencies reporting the crimes was 11,099, somewhat less than in 2002.

But there was a some increase in racial bias crimes which accounted for 51.4 percent in 2003, as compared to 48.8 percent in 2002. Religious bias motivated 19.1 percent of incidents compared to 17.9 percent in 2002. Crimes of sexual-orientation bias remained virtually the same, provoking 16.7 percent in 2003 compared to 16.6 percent in 2002. But bias against an ethnicity or national origin rose at least 1 percent, causing 14.8 percent of the hate crimes in 2003, compared to 13.7 percent in 2002.

Among the offenses of murder, forcible rape, aggravated assault, simple assault and intimidation, which are considered to be crimes against persons, intimidation was the most often reported hate crime, comprising 49.7 percent of the total crimes against persons in 2003.

Simple assault accounted for 32.8 percent of the total, and aggravated assault comprised 16.7 percent. Murder and forcible rape accounted for 0.3 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively, of crimes against persons, and the other offense category made up the remaining 0.5 percent.

Among the 14 bias-motivated murders reported by law enforcement, six homicides were committed as a result of a sexual-orientation bias, five were the result of racial prejudice, and two were committed because of a bias against an ethnicity/national origin. One murder was the result of a hostility toward a disability.

The category crimes against property which included the offenses of robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and damage/destruction/vandalism, showed 83.4 percent of the total of such crimes were damage/destruction/vandalism. Of the 2,618 acts of destruction, damage, or vandalism driven by bias, 47.6 percent were directed at individuals, 10.5 percent were aimed at business or financial institutions, 8.1 percent were leveled at governmental entities, and another 8.1 percent were directed at religious organizations. Unknown, multiple, or other victim types accounted for the remainder. The report noted that “with regard to the attribute of race, among the 6,934 reported offenders, 62.3 percent were white, and 18.5 percent were black.”

The race was unknown for 10.7 percent of offenders, and the remainder was of other races or members of a group composed of offenders of varying races. The highest number of hate crime incidents (32 percent) took place in or on residential properties. Highways, roads, alleys, or streets were the settings for 17.6 percent of the reported incidents, and 11.8 percent took place at schools and colleges.