News Release
For Immediate Release: November 16, 2011
Contact: Diane Gramley 1.814.271.9078 or 1.814.437.5355
FBI Releases 2010 Hate Crime Stats – it is still more dangerous to be black or religious than to be ‘gay’
(Harrisburg) – On Monday the FBI released their 2010 Hate Crimes Statistics noting that the number of hate crime incidences is holding steady when comparing the 6,604 incidents in 2009 to 6,624 in 2010. And as in the past the numbers revealed that nationally you are more likely to be the victim of a hate crime if you are black or religious (Jewish being the most dangerous at 887 incidences of hate crimes out of 1,322) than if you identify as homosexual. Of the 6,624 single bias incidents, 47.3 percent were motivated by a racial bias, 20.0 percent were motivated by a religious bias, 19.3 percent were motivated by a sexual orientation bias.
The American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA of PA) again notes that there is no need for hate crimes legislation as such laws attempt to give mind reading ability to law enforcement as they try to interpret the thoughts of the perpetrator in a crime. This is confirmed by the FBI, ” Because motivation is subjective, it is sometimes difficult to know with certainty whether a crime resulted from the offender’s bias.”
“It’s interesting that the agencies which participated in the Uniform Crime Reporting Hate Crimes Statistics Program in 2010 represented 92.3 percent of the country with jurisdictions covering 49 states and the District of Columbia. And even more interesting is that of the 14,977 agencies submitting data less than 2,000 reported any hate crimes. There is no epidemic of hate crimes, there are already laws on the books to address the crimes committed so does this just amount to additional paperwork for law enforcement to file?” questioned Diane Gramley, President of the AFA of PA.
In the UCR Program, the victim of a hate crime can be an individual, a business, an institution, or society as a whole.
As noted above hate crimes legislation is not necessary as there are already laws on the books to address the “hate crimes” listed in the URC report. They are as follows:
Murder and Non-negligent manslaughter
Forcible rape
Aggravated assault
Simple assault
Intimidation
Robbery
Burglary
Larceny-theft
Motor vehicle theft
Arson
Destruction of property/damage/vandalism
“Of the 6,624 bias incidences reported 57 were committed in Pennsylvania. We had 1,347 reporting agencies and 31 reported the 57 hate crimes. As on the national scene racial bias is in the forefront with 33 incidences and the remaining divided between the other three categories. Pennsylvania is not facing a hate crimes epidemic. As we look at these numbers, they debunk the idea that homosexuals are targeted for their lifestyle choice,” noted Gramley.
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