10 U.S. States Most Plagued By Hate Crimes

[Behind the Aegis]

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Congress defines a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin, or sexual orientation.” Usually, these are crimes that are violent in nature, and can include offenses like murder, assault, arson or vandalism.

While many people realize that violence against the LGBT community is considered a hate crime, it wasn’t that way until 2009. The passage of a new law gave the federal government the authority to prosecute violent hate crimes against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act also helped with the prosecution of hate crimes based on sexual orientation by providing funding and assistance to states and other jurisdictions to help them investigate, prosecute, and prevent hate crimes.

According to the FBI, in 2012, 48.3% of 5,790 single-bias incidents in 2012 were racially motivated, while 19.6% were based on sexual orientation and 19% from religious bias. Of the 5,331 known offenders, 54.6% of them were white, and 23.3% were black.

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One very important note to consider when looking at these rankings is that there are many variables at play that may or may not be quantifiable. When looking at these rankings, it’s important to remember that these stats are only a small piece of the puzzle and are not, of course, definitive proof that any one state has more hatred or bias than any other. These are simply statistics of reported crimes during a certain period of time.

more: http://www.therichest.com/rich-list/most-shocking/10-u-s-states-most-plagued-by-hate-crimes/

10. Maine – 3.91 crimes per 100,000 people
9. Washington – 3.95 crimes per 100,000 people
8. Nevada – 4.15 crimes per 100,000 people
7. Connecticut – 4.17 crimes per 100,000 people
6. Alabama – 4.25 crimes per 100,000 people
5. Tennessee – 4.91 crimes per 100,000 people
4. Kentucky – 5.31 crimes per 100,000 people
3. North Dakota – 5.95 crimes per 100,000 people
2. Michigan – 6.38 crimes per 100,000 people (Note: Michigan is one of several states that do not classify violence against members of the LGBT community as a hate crime)
1. District of Columbia – 11.39 crimes per 100,000 people

[Bonhomme Richard]

1. Maybe some of those States are less tolerant......

of hate crimes and pursue those crimes aggressively and that would show more hate crimes.

[Bluenorthwest]

2. Aw, that's such a sweet thought, but that's not the case.

Of course.

[etherealtruth]

6. Sadly, I doubt that is the case

[Behind the Aegis]

8. Possible, but unlikely.

Personally, I would like to see numbers of the affected population and the crimes, because I feel that might paint a more vivid and accurate picture. Of course, it doesn't help that not all locales record hate crimes for various groups.

[RKP5637]

3. There's a lot of hatefulness in the US. I'm amazed there are so many hateful people doing

hate crimes. I feel uncomfortable in much of the US, there is not reason I should be, but there is a lot of hatefulness and violence in the US with random acts.

[ismnotwasm]

4. I live in Washington

And this surprises me not at all. Washington is seen as a "liberal state" but it's actually more purple. I live in Seattle,which is fairly Gay friendly, but we still have assholes who "cruise" Capital hill to harass Gays. One whole half of our state tends toward conservatism, but also has the type of conservatism that breeds hate groups.

Plus people who hate always have a stupid spot, like not knowing the difference between a Sikh and an Arab head wrap.

[alp227]

5. also the home of raging bigot preacher Ken Hutcherson

who died last year from prostate cancer. Good riddance to a walking cancer, I suppose.

Another noted anti-gay figure from the Evergreen State is another preacher man, Mark Driscoll.

[freshwest]

13. Don't forget Glenn Beck. n/t

[Behind the Aegis]

9. With the exception of a few states, most are really purple.

The larger cities tend to be more liberal in most places with the outlying and rural areas being worse. Of course, in larger cities there are more people and more potential for conflict as opposed to smaller places where everyone knows everyone and most just let folks be. I lived in the same city I am living now for three years before moving to New Orleans for 5 years. While I lived here, the first time, I was very worried about being "exposed" as a gay couple and my being Jewish. Didn't have any problems though. Within two weeks of living in New Orleans, I was called a "kike" (which I hadn't heard in years!!!) and harassed because I was gay, which was strange given the LARGE amount of gay people in NOLA.

I live in one of the reddest states in the Union, and while I have certainly had problems here from time to time, I mostly am able to go about my business without being harassed or intimidated because of my sexual orientation or religion. On the state level, it is a whole other story! LOL!

[Cha]

7. So much hate.. :(

[stevenleser]

10. Four Red States, Four Blue states, a swing state (Nevada) and the District of Columbia

Need to sift through this a bit.

[Behind the Aegis]

11. Like I said upthread, I think it would be interesting to see the affected pop numbers.

Of course, not all places report all crimes that could be labeled the crimes, so that also skews numbers. I haven't really checked out this year's report (which is from 2012). The report's are almost always released in October/November of the following year. You know how to find the reports, right? If not let me know.

[npk]

12. Many states, including the ones on the list do not recognize crimes against LGBT people as hate...

crimes. Otherwise some of these states would have even higher numbers and some other states might have unseated some of these states in the top 10. I know that DC does recognize hate crimes against LGBT individuals, but states like Alabama and Michigan do not.

[Behind the Aegis]

14. Here are the states...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Map_of_LGBT-related_hate_crime_law_in_the_United_States.svg

English (en): US state hate crime laws as they pertain to sexual orientation and gender identity

(grey) State hate crimes law uninclusive of sexual orientation or gender identity

(aqua) Sexual orientation recognized for data collection about hate crimes

(blue) Sexual orientation recognized in state hate crimes law

(purple) Sexual orientation and gender identity recognized in state hate crimes law

[davidpdx]

15. So of the four, the purple ones are the states that do the best of recognizing and tracking

hate crimes?

[Behind the Aegis]

16. That would be correct.

ETA: Well, maybe not the "best" at tracking, but they do report on all of the crimes, as opposed to other states which do not.

[bluedigger]

17. In Maine's defense, that's a total of around 40.

Add or subtract two or three and the percentage will swing quite a bit with a population of a million or so.