Lynn Langton, Ph.D., BJS Statistician, Madeline Masucci, BJS Intern

June 29, 2017    NCJ 250653

Presents National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) data on hate crime victimization from 2004 to 2015. Hate crimes are violent or property crimes that the victim perceived to be motivated by bias due to the victim's race, ethnicity, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or religion. The report examines the perceived motivation for the hate crime, evidence that the crime was motivated by bias, demographic characteristics of victims and offenders, and hate crimes reported and not reported to police. It compares characteristics of hate crime and nonhate crime victimizations. The report also compares the NCVS and FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting hate crime statistics.

Highlights:

• U.S. residents experienced an average of 250,000 hate crime victimizations each year from 2004 to 2015.
• There was no statistically significant change in the annual rate of violent hate crime victimization from 2004 to 2015 (about 0.7 per 1,000 persons age 12 or older).
• The majority (99%) of victims cited offenders' use of hate language as evidence of a hate crime.
• During the 5-year aggregate period from 2011-15, racial bias was the most common motivation for hate crime (48%).
• About 54% of hate crime victimizations were not reported to police during 2011-15.

Part of the Hate Crime Series

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