Hate Crimes against Asian Americans, Hispanics, and GLBT People on the Rise
Feature Story by Karen Tanenbaum - 10/29/2008
The FBI's annual hate crimes report, released on October 27, shows a slight decrease in the overall number of reported hate crimes in the United States. However, violence against certain groups has increased since the previous year.
According to the report, "Hate Crime Statistics 2007," crimes against Hispanics have increased for the fourth year in a row, and those against gays and lesbians have increased by nearly 6 percent. In addition, while the number of hate crimes motivated by religion has decreased overall, hate crimes against Jewish people have slightly increased. Hate crimes against people who are Black or Asian/Pacific Islander also increased.
"While we welcome the fact that reported hate crimes declined slightly in 2007, violent bigotry is still disturbingly prevalent in America, with nearly one hate crime occurring every hour of every day of the year," said Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
A hate crime is defined by the FBI as a criminal act that is motivated by race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or disability. The crime may be committed against a person, property, or society.
Although the 2007 FBI report contains data from the largest number of law enforcement agencies in the program's 17-year history, many hate crimes may not be included in the FBI's statistics. Some law enforcement agencies choose not to report their crime statistics to the FBI; the jurisdictions included in the report represent only 94.6 percent of the U.S. population. In addition, the definition of hate crime may vary between agencies.
Of the more than 13,000 law enforcement agencies included in the statistics, only 15.3 percent of the agencies reported that any hate crime incidents occurred in their jurisdictions in 2007. Four major cities reported no hate crimes in 2007 – Tulsa, Okla.; Tucson, Ariz.; Oklahoma City; and Miami. The state of Mississippi also reported that no hate crimes occurred in that state during 2007.
Civil rights advocates say that the FBI's statistics make a strong case for passing the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crime Prevention Act, which will improve both hate crime reporting and anti-hate crime enforcement.
"We look forward to working with the new president and the new Congress in January to promote a renewed national commitment to prevent criminal behavior motivated by prejudice," said Foxman.
