WASHINGTON, DC — The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released the hate crimes statistics for the most recent reporting year (2011), which show that 6,222 criminal incidents involving 7,254 offenses were reported as a result of bias toward a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or physical or mental disability.

The statistics, which were published by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program, provide data about the offenses, victims, offenders, and locations of bias-motivated incidents that were reported by law enforcement agencies throughout the nation.

According to the report, of the 6,216 reported single-bias incidents, 46.9 percent were motivated by a racial bias, 20.8 percent were motivated by a sexual orientation bias, 19.8 percent were motivated by a religious bias, and 11.6 percent were motivated by an ethnicity/national origin bias.

Of the 4,623 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons last year, intimidation accounted for 45.6 percent. Four murders and seven forcible rapes were reported as hate crimes.

Fifty-nine percent of the 5,731 known offenders were white; 20.9 percent were black. Most hate crime incidents (32.0 percent) occurred in or near homes.

“It’s a positive sign that reported hate crimes on a national level have dropped,” Capt. Rick Wierzbicki, who commands the Broward Sheriff’s Office Anti-Bias Task Force, told the Agenda. “But it is important to remember that hate crimes are known to be routinely underreported due to various reasons.”

As Wierzbicki noted, “The FBI report also stated in total reported hate crimes incidents, persons were targeted for their sexual orientation at a number of 20.8 percent, or 1 in 5 crimes.” The most recent stats from the Florida attorney general’s hate crimes report found 21.5 percent of incidents based on sexual orientation, “so the numbers are very similar in comparison.”