FBI Releases 2011 Hate Crimes Data; 19.8% Are Motivated By Anti-Religious Bias

The FBI today released its 2011 Hate Crime Statistics. The report shows that there were 6,216 single-bias motivated incidents reported, of which 1,233 (19.8%) involved religious bias.  For comparison, for 2010 the FBI reported 6,624 single-bias incidents, with 1,322 (20%) motivated by religious bias-- though the reporting jurisdictions were not identical in the two years. (See prior posting.) The 2011 data show that of the 1,233 incidents motivated by religious bias, 771 of those were anti-Jewish; 157 were anti-Islamic; 67 were anti-Catholic; 44 were anti-Protestant; and 4 were anti-Atheist or Agnostic.  Fully 130, however, involved bias against other religions. As previously reported, efforts are underway to add anti-Sikh and anti-Hindu subcategories in order to refine the "Other Religion" number. In 2011, crimes motivated by religious bias were the third most frequent category of hate crimes.  Racial bias ranked first (2,917 incidents), and bias based on sexual orientation ranked second (1,293 incidents). The ADL issued a press release welcoming the 6% decrease in hate crimes since last year, but saying this is still far too many. [Thanks to Michael Lieberman for the lead.]