---
title: "More hate crimes motivated by victims’ ethnicity"
description: "In about half of the cases of reported hate crimes, victims believed their ethnic background motivated the offender."
date: "2014-02-21"
authors:
  - name: "Bruce Drake"
    job_title: "Former Senior Editor"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/bruce-drake/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2014/02/21/more-hate-crimes-motivated-by-victims-ethnicity/"
categories:
  - "Criminal Justice"
  - "Discrimination & Prejudice"
---

# More hate crimes motivated by victims’ ethnicity

Motivations behind hate crimes have [shifted significantly](http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/press/hcv0412stpr.cfm) in recent years, with the biggest jump in hate crimes that, according to the victims, were based on ethnicity bias. Ethnicity, defined as a victim's "ancestral, cultural, social or national affiliation," was cited as a reason in 51% of cases reported in 2012, up from 30% in 2011 and 22% in 2004, according to a new report from the [Bureau of Justice Statistics](http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/hcv0412st.pdf).

[![HateCrimes_motives](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2014/02/HateCrimes_motives.png)](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2014/02/HateCrimes_motives.png)

In addition to the big jump in ethnicity as a motivation, the percentage of hate crimes where the perceived cause was religious bias nearly tripled -- from 10% in 2004 to 28% in 2012. Over the same period, the percentage of hate crimes rooted in gender bias more than doubled, from 12% to 26%. There were a total of 293,790 reported hate crimes in 2012, up from 218,010 in 2011 and 281,670 in 2004.

Changes were much less dramatic for other hate-crime motives tracked by the government. Hate crimes in which race and sexual orientation were cited showed a decline between 2004 and 2012, from 58% to 46%, while hate crimes motivated by a person’s disability remained about the same (11%). The BJS noted that in many cases, victims reported more than one bias motivation for the same crime.