The number of hate crimes reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) rose two percent in 2000 according to the FBI’s report, Hate Crime Statistics 2000, released yesterday. The FBI defined a hate crime as a bias-motivated criminal incident against a person because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin, or disability. Racial prejudice accounted for the majority of single-bias incidents reported in 2000, and most hate-crimes were directed at African Americans. Within hate crimes motivated by religion, Jewish Americans were most often victims, and within hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation, gay men were most often victims. Intimidation was the most frequently reported offense, accounting for over 53 percent of total crimes against individuals. The FBI recorded only ten homicides resulting from hate crimes in 2000. The majority of hate crimes, according to the FBI, occurred in residential areas. The FBI, however, cautioned that the statistics may not show an accurate picture of trends in hate crimes because police agencies report on their statistics only voluntarily, varying the number of agencies reporting each year.
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