Hate crimes against gays, religious groups up, FBI says

WASHINGTON — Reports of hate crimes against gays and religious groups increased sharply in 2008, according to FBI data released Monday.

Overall, the number of reported hate-crime incidents increased about 2 percent. These same figures show a nearly 11 percent increase in hate-crime offenses based on sexual orientation, and a nearly 9 percent increase in hate-crime offenses based on religion.

The largest category — racially motivated hate crimes — fell less than 1 percent.

Joe Solmonese, president of Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay civil-rights group, called the numbers unacceptable and said they showed the need for the expanded federal hate-crimes law signed last month by President Obama.

Among all categories of hate crimes, roughly a third are vandalism or property damage. About 30 percent involve intimidation of some kind, and another 30 percent were physical attacks.

In Washington, 239 hate crimes were reported in 2008, compared with 195 in 2007, an increase of 23 percent. In 2006, 177 hate crimes were reported in Washington.

But the FBI does not compare its data from one year to the next because the number of agencies participating in the annual count varies from year to year, as was the case in Washington during those years.

The King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office has said that better awareness and more reporting of hate crimes continue to be factors in the higher numbers. Seattle led Washington cities with 21 reported hate crimes in 2008.

Of the 239 statewide hate crimes in 2008, 121 were based on race; 35 based on religion; 42 based on sexual orientation; 38 based on ethnicity; and 3 based on disability. Of 251 participating law-enforcement agencies, 61 submitted hate-crime reports, covering a population of 6.5 million people.

Brian Levin, director for the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino, warned that the national numbers may be misleading because some states — like California, New Jersey, and Ohio — are good at reporting hate crimes while others — Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi and Pennsylvania — are not.

In 2008, 2,145 different agencies reported hate-crimes incidents, while the year before 2,025 agencies did this reporting.

In total, there were 7,783 hate crimes reported to the FBI last year, and seven murders were categorized as hate crimes.

The FBI data is based on information law-enforcement agencies voluntarily report to the bureau.

Half of all hate crimes are motivated by race, according to the FBI. One out of every five is driven by religious bias, and one out of every six is based on sexual-orientation bias.

Less than a month ago, Obama signed a bill expanding those covered by the federal law against hate crimes. Previously, the law had protected those attacked on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin.

The law signed by Obama now covers crimes based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. It also removes the restriction that federal authorities can launch investigations of victims who were engaged in federally protected activities like voting or free speech.

Information from Seattle Times staff reporter Steve Miletich and Times archives is included.