FBI: Hate crimes on the rise
By Jen Colletta
PGN Staff Writer
© 2007 Philadelphia Gay News

The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported Nov. 19 that hate crimes in 2006 increased nearly 8 percent over the previous year. The number of hate crimes motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation also increased more than 17 percent and comprised the third-largest percentage of the incidents.

Of the 7,722 reported hate-crime incidents, 51.8 percent were motivated by racial bias, 18.9 percent by religion, 15.5 percent by sexual orientation, 12.7 percent by ethnicity/national origin and 1 percent by the victim’s disability, according to the FBI report.

The number of total hate crimes rose by 559 since 2005, and the number of sexual-orientation-motivated crimes increased from 1,017 in 2005 to 1,195 in 2006.

In 2006, the FBI classified 20.7 percent of the sexual-orientation-motivated crimes as general anti-homosexual, 62.3 percent as anti-male homosexual, 13.6 percent as anti-female homosexual and 1.5 percent as anti-bisexual. About 2 percent of these hate crimes were motivated by the victim’s heterosexuality.

The FBI has been publishing its annual hate-crime report since 1990, following the passage of the Hate Crime Statistics Act. FBI statistics show that over the past 10 years, the number of hate crimes in the country has fluctuated, hitting a low point in 2002 with 7,462 hate crimes reported and peaking in 2001, with a reported 9,731 cases.

Of the 17,000 local, county, state and federal police agencies across the country, about 12,600 provided the FBI with their 2006 crime statistics. The FBI said 2,105 of these law-enforcement agencies reported a hate crime within their jurisdiction. Agencies are not required to submit their hate-crime statistics to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, which collects and compiles the data.

The number of reported hate crimes in Pennsylvania decreased between 2005 and 2006; however, this may be the result of fewer agencies reporting their data to the FBI. In 2005, 36 agencies reported a combined 113 hate crimes; the following year, 27 agencies reported 97 hate crimes. There were 13 hate crimes motivated by a victim’s sexual orientation both years.

In 2005, Philadelphia reported 37 hate crimes, four of which were motivated by sexual orientation. There were 34 reported hate crimes in the city in 2006, four of which were based on sexual orientation.

In a statement released Nov. 19, the Human Rights Campaign noted that the number of actual hate crimes might be much higher than the FBI’s statistics. The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Program, which tracks bias incidents against the GLBT community, reported 1,393 anti-gay hate crimes in 2006 in only 12 jurisdictions. In addition, the HRC evaluated several jurisdictions that reported having no hate crimes and found several media reports about anti-gay crimes that had occurred in those areas.

“While the FBI statistics provide a glimpse of the pervasiveness of bias-motivated violence in the United States, these statistics should be used as a starting point, not a comprehensive number,” the HRC statement said.

The FBI report came as the Matthew Shepard Act sits in a conference between the House and Senate, waiting to be sent to the president for veto or approval. The bill, which was attached as an amendment to the Senate’s 2008 Defense Authorization Act, would strengthen federal hate-crimes laws for crimes motivated by a victim’s sexual orientation. The House passed a similar bill in May.

A conference report on the bill is expected from House and Senate conferees after the Thanksgiving recess before it can be sent to President Bush.

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), chief sponsor of the amendment, said it is necessary not only for the GLBT community, but for all Americans.

“We obviously need to strengthen the existing federal hate-crimes law. A provision to do just that was included in the Senate version of the Defense Authorization, and hopefully the FBI report will persuade the House to accept it,” Kennedy said. “It’s essential to send a strong message here at home and around the world that our country will not tolerate crimes fueled by hate.”

Jen Colletta can be reached at jen@epgn.com.