Methodology.

Hate crime data collected by the FBI include criminal offenses committed against persons, property, or society that are motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual-orientation, or ethnicity/national-origin. In addition to the offense classification and bias identification, a hate crime report provides information about each hate crime incident including the type and number of victims, the location of the incident, the number of suspected offenders, and the suspected offender's race.

Hate crimes are not separate, distinct crimes but rather traditional offenses motivated by the offender's bias. It is, therefore, unnecessary for law enforcement to create a new crime category in an effort to capture hate crime data. To the contrary, hate crime data are collected by capturing additional information about offenses already being reported.

Data Reporting

Hate crime data are reported both by agencies submitting data through the Summary Reporting System (SRS) and by those submitting data via the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Agencies using the SRS and some agencies reporting via NIBRS use two standard forms on which to collect and report data: the Hate Crime Incident Report and the Quarterly Hate Crime Report. These forms supply the national UCR Program with hate crime data for 11 offenses--the 8 Index crimes (murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson) plus simple assault, intimidation, and destruction/damage/vandalism.

During a calendar quarter, law enforcement agencies submit a Hate Crime Incident Report for each bias-motivated incident. At the end of each calendar quarter, reporting agencies submit a Quarterly Hate Crime Report, which includes the total number of incidents reported for the quarter as well as deletes any previously reported incidents that were later determined to be invalid (not bias-motivated). Law enforcement agencies using this form submit Quarterly Hate Crime Reports even though they may be reporting zero hate crime incidents.

Most agencies reporting data to the national UCR Program via NIBRS use a data element within their reporting software that indicates a hate crime. However, since NIBRS is a comprehensive system that is incident-based, considerably more information about the hate crime incident can be reported.

Regardless of the reporting format the agency follows, SRS or NIBRS, an important distinction must be made when law enforcement report a hate crime. The mere fact that the offender is biased against the victim's race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and/or ethnicity/national origin does not mean that a hate crime was invariably involved. Rather, the offender's criminal act must have been motivated, in whole or in part, by his/her bias. Because motivation is subjective, it is difficult to know with certainty whether a crime was the result of the offender's bias. Therefore, law enforcement reports an incident as a hate crime only if the investigation revealed sufficient, objective facts to lead a reasonable and prudent person to conclude that the offender's actions were motivated, in whole or in part, by bias against a racial, religious, disability, ethnicity/national-origin, or sexual-orientation group.

(A comprehensive discussion on the SRS and NIBRS can be found in the Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook and the Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook, NIBRS edition.)

Data Collection

A hate crime incident can involve more than one offense, victim, and/or offender. For counting purposes, one offense is counted for each victim of a crime against a person, and one offense is counted for each distinct incident of a crime against property and a crime against society (NIBRS only), regardless of the number of victims. The total number of victims in a given incident is the sum of victims associated with each offense that took place within the incident.

Agencies reporting data on the two hate crime forms collect data on 11 offense categories: Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, aggravated assault, simple assault, and intimidation are classified as crimes against persons. Robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and destruction/damage/vandalism of property are classified as crimes against property.

For agencies submitting data via the NIBRS, the data element indicating bias motivation applies to all 46 Group "A" Offenses, which include the previously mentioned 11 offense categories. The remaining 35 Group "A" Offenses (not listed) are reported in this publication as other or as crimes against society, whichever is appropriate. (See the Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook, NIBRS edition, for a discussion of all 46 Group "A" Offenses.)

Data Publication

To be included in this publication, law enforcement agencies must have submitted data for at least 1 month of the calendar year. The published data, therefore, do not necessarily represent reports from each participating agency for 12 months or 4 quarters. Section II of this publication furnishes individual state and agency information, including the number of quarters for which the agency reported data to the national Program.

Notes to data users:

1. When examining the data contained in this report, it is helpful to note that the first line of the title of each table presents in boldface type that table's unit of count, i.e., incident, offense, victim, known offender.

2. It is incumbent upon all data users to become as well educated as possible about how to understand and quantify the nature and extent of hate crime in the United States and in any of the almost 12,000 agencies contributing data to this publication. Valid assessments are possible only with careful study and analysis of the various unique conditions affecting each local law enforcement jurisdiction. Until data users examine all the variables that affect crime in a town, city, county, state, region, or college or university, they can make no meaningful comparisons. (A more thorough discussion of the factors that affect crime can be found in Crime in the United States, in the chapter entitled Crime Factors.)