FBI Report Shows Increase in Hate Crimes against People with Disabilities

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released a report on the number of hate crimes committed during 2012.  Crimes against people with disabilities accounted for 1.6 percent of incidents, nearly twice as many as were reported in 2011 even as the total number of hate crimes nationwide declined. The FBI said that 82 of the incidents were related to mental disability and 20 were related to physical disability.

Statistics released November 25  from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program indicate that there were 102 hate crime offenses reported in 2012 based on disability bias. That’s up from 58 the year before.

Overall, 5,796 criminal incidents reported last year were motivated by a bias toward a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin or disability. In 2011, there were 6,222 cases.

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