Hello Everyone,
Evelyn here,
In a new release from November 19, 2007, the Attorney General, Bill McCollum, wrote about the current reported incidents of hate crime as being at its lowest since 1998.
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Bill McCollum
Attorney General
News Release
November 19, 2007
McCollum: Florida Hate Crime Level Drops for 2nd Consecutive Year
Reported Hate Crimes at Lowest Level in Eight Years, Below Annual Average
TALLAHASSEE, FL – Reported hate crimes in Florida fell last year to their lowest level since 1998, Attorney General Bill McCollum announced today. McCollum released the Florida Hate Crimes Report covering the 2006 calendar year, noting that a total of 259 hate crimes were reported by local law enforcement agencies that year. Since hate crime reporting began in 1990, Florida law enforcement agencies have reported an annual average of 277 reported hate crime incidents, well above this year’s total hate crimes reported.
“As this report indicates, the number of hate crimes committed in Florida has been decreasing for years, a statistic I am pleased to support,” said Attorney General McCollum. “Our Office of Civil Rights is committed to fighting any hate-motivated injustices as part of its mission.”
There are two broad categories of hate crime offenses: crimes against persons and crimes against property. Reports for 2006 showed that a smaller share of hate crimes were directed at persons than in the previous year, with a corresponding increase in the share directed at property. Crimes against persons accounted for 66 percent of all incidents reported in 2006, down from 71 percent in 2005, while crimes against property accounted for the remaining 34 percent, up from 29 percent in 2005.
The 2006 report shows not only the number of hate crimes committed, but also categorizes the offenses by the nature of the motivating factor. During 2006, hate crimes motivated by the victim's race represented 55.2 percent of all reported hate crimes, followed by crimes motivated by sexual orientation at 18.1 percent; religion at 13.5 percent; and ethnicity/national origin at 13.1 percent. No hate crimes were reported under the categories of disability or advanced age. Data in the Hate Crimes Report was submitted by local law enforcement agencies to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which then provided it to the Attorney General's Office for reporting.
The Hate Crimes in Florida Report is prepared each year pursuant to the Hate Crimes Reporting Act, section 877.19, Florida Statutes. The report summarizes data collected by local law enforcement agencies and submitted to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Any attempt to rank or categorize an agency, county or region based solely on this report may be misleading by making it appear that certain areas have a high number of hate crimes when in fact their law enforcement agencies may have different polices of identifying and reporting such crimes. The report does not include unreported crimes or those that may have been hate-related but were not classified as such by the local law enforcement agency.
Since 1994, the Attorney General's Office of Civil Rights has conducted hate crimes training seminars for state and local law enforcement agencies throughout Florida. Through the end of the period covered by the latest annual report, more than 3,500 law enforcement personnel from more than 272 jurisdictions had received this training. The Office of Civil Rights has also developed programs for elementary, middle and high school students to teach them how to recognize hate crimes, how the law protects victims of hate crimes, and how such crimes affect Florida communities.
A copy of the Hate Crimes in Florida 2006 report is available here.
Earlier today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released the national Hate Crimes Report for 2006 which is available on the FBI's website at http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm.
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Evelyn out.
