Caroline Wolf Harlow, Ph.D.

November 1, 2005    NCJ 209911

Provides information on the number of hate crimes reported to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and their characteristics. This BJS Special Report uses data from victims' reports to the NCVS from July 2000 through December 2003 and from police reports to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR) in 2002 to describe characteristics of hate crimes. Information is provided on the motivations for hate crime as perceived by victims, the types of crimes which victims thought were hate-related, reasons for reporting or not reporting hate crimes to police, police response to victim's notification of a crime, the time and place at which hate crimes occurred and offenders' gender, race, age, relationship to the victim, use of weapons, and gang membership. Rates of hate crime are presented for victims by gender, race, ethnicity, age and other characteristics. The report also compares results from the NCVS and the UCR on motivations for hate crime, the types of crimes that involve hate, and the characteristics of victims and offenders.

Highlights include the following:

• Most hate crimes described by victims accompanied violent crimes - a rape or other sexual assault, robbery, or assault (84%).
• In about half of hate crimes, the victim was threatened verbally or assaulted without either a weapon or an injury being involved
• In 41% of hate victimizations reported to police, law enforcement was at the scene within 10 minutes.

Part of the Hate Crime Series

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