While cruising around the web, I found that the FBI has posted its hate crime report from 2002 as a pdf file and it has some very interesting results. From p. 16 of the report, we learn that of the total 8,832 offenses reported that were motivated by some kind of bias, 2,967 were against Black people (34%), 1,039 were against Jews (12%), and 957 (11%) were against gay men. Each of these groups was the largest in number in its category of racial, religious, or sexual orientation motivation.

Of the crimes against persons, the statistics also break out in interesting ways. The most common offenses against Black people (2110 in all) were aggravated assault (390, 18%), simple assault (608, 29%), and intimidation (1,107, 52%). The most common offenses against Jews (485 in all) were intimidation (433, 89%), followed by aggravated assault (17, 3.5%) and simple assault (35, 7%). The most common offenses against gay men (734 in all) were aggravated assault (138, 19%), simple assault (279, 38%), and intimidation (311, 42%). Gay men and Black people are thus much more likely to be the victims of violent crimes because of their identity than Jews are.

Of the crimes against property, the majority in all three cases fell into the "destruction/damage/vandalism" category -- Blacks (755), Jews (524), and gay men (163). Gay men were also significantly more likely to be robbed than the other groups (36 for them vs. 2 Jews and 13 Blacks).

Of the other single religious groups (excluding the catch-all "other religion" category), Muslims were the next most likely to be victims of a bias-motivated crime, with a total of 170 offenses. This included 12 aggravated assaults, 22 simple assaults, and 66 cases of intimidation. Of the crimes against property, the category of "destruction/damage/vandalism" was also the largest, with 55 offenses.

Of those killed for bias-motivated reasons in 2002 (11 in all), 3 were Black, 1 was white, one belonged to the "other religion" category, 4 were gay men, and 2 were Hispanic.

If you're interested in more details, you can download your very own copy by cruising to Uniform Crime Reports. They have the hate crime statistics from 1995-2002.