2006 Hate Crime Statistics Released by FBI

Hate crimes were up in 2006, with three people killed, six raped, and more than 4,500 assaulted or intimidated.

By Martin W.G. King, NCPC Staff

Hate crimes scar this country’s face. Like a bleeding wound, these crimes, defined as offenses committed as a result of bias against a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or physical or mental disability, conflict with other, more positive aspects of America’s character. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has released its annual report on these troubling crimes, Hate Crime Statistics, 2006, and the picture is ugly.

Frighteningly, hate crimes against people in 2006 easily outnumbered crimes against property: 4,378 to 3,593. And the hate crimes against people were serious: three people were killed; six were raped; 860 were the subjects of aggravated assault; and 1,447 were the subjects of simple assault. Two thousand forty-six people were physically “intimidated” to the point that the police were called and charges filed. Of the crimes of intimidation, 1,356 were committed by whites in 2006 and 215 by blacks. The number of offenses involved for all these crimes was actually far higher than these figures indicate because one criminal incident might involve several offenses.

As for crimes against property, there were only 142 robberies and 155 burglaries, but a staggering 2,911 crimes of destruction, damage, and vandalism, which in some circumstances could prove to be equally traumatic to the victims.

Of the 7,720 single-bias hate crime incidents committed in 2006, 51.8 percent were racially motivated. Almost 19 percent of the incidents were motivated by religious bias, and 15.5 percent resulted from bias against sexual orientation.

The report breaks its findings down still further. Of racial bias crimes, 66.2 percent were motivated by anti-black bias, whereas 21.3 percent were motivated by anti-white bias. Of religious bias crimes, 64.3 percent of crimes were anti-Jewish, 12 percent were anti-Islamic and 5.1 percent were anti-Catholic. Of the sexual orientation crimes, 62.3 percent were classified as anti-male homosexual and 13.6 percent were classified as anti-female homosexual.

The racial makeup of known hate crime perpetrators changed slightly from 2005 to 2006. In 2005, white perpetrators committed the overwhelming number of hate crimes against people, 3,008, whereas black perpetrators committed 771. Unknown offenders and people of unknown race committed a large number of these crimes. In 2006, white perpetrators committed 3,122 of these crimes, compared with 839 committed by black perpetrators.

The figures reveal a more significant change, with a sharp increase in the number of hate crime incidents between 2005 and 2006. In 2006, there were 559 more hate crime incidents than in the preceding year (7,722 in 2006 compared with 7,163 in 2005).

In its press release announcing publication of its report, the FBI said that 31 percent of hate crimes occurred in or near residences or homes; 18 percent on highways, roads, streets, or alleys; 12.2 percent at colleges or schools; 6.1 percent in parking lots or garages; and 3.9 percent at churches, synagogues, or temples. As a result, the use of some common safety measures might help prevent some of these crimes. For more information on personal safety, go to www.ncpc.org.

Resources

• National Crime Prevention Council, Hate/Bias and Personal Safety
• Federal Bureau of Investigation, www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2006
• Southern Poverty Law Center, www.splcenter.org/news
• Anti-Defamation League, www.adl.org
• National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, www.thetaskforce.org