New York Releases 2008 Hate Crime Statistics

Last week, New York's Division of Criminal Justice Services released its 2008 report on hate crimes in the state. (Full text of report.) It identified 596 instances, involving 610 victims. Two-thirds were crimes against persons (particularly assault and intimidation), while one-third were property crimes. 43% of the crimes were motivated by race/ethnicity/national origin, while 37% were motivated by religious bias. 31.4% of the victims were targeted in anti-Jewish incidents; 24.8% in anti-Black incidents; and 14.8% in anti-male homosexual incidents. Yesterday's Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record reported on the newly released statistics.