Reported hate crimes in the United States fell by 6 percent in 2011 from the previous year, newly released FBI statistics show.
Attacks based on a person's religion fell 3.4 percent from 2010 levels, including a 13 percent drop in crimes targeting Jews. Anti-Muslim crimes dropped less than 1 percent. Even with that improvement, Jews still attract the lion's share – 62 percent – of crimes targeting religious groups.
Hate crimes can include acts of violence like assault, rape and murder in addition to property crimes like vandalism. In many cases, then, the report reflects a status quo when it comes to crime motivated by bigotry, with some slight improvements. [IPT] Read more
