M E D I A   R E L E A S E





For Immediate Release

November 22, 2004

FBI Releases Annual Statistics on Hate Crimes
Annual Report’s Deficiencies Continue; Eighteen-Month Spike in Anti-LGBT Hate Not Acknowledged

New York Today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released its annual report on Hate Crimes across the nation. The report, which documented hate crimes across the country in 2003, contained information on 1,239 incidents in which the perpetrators’ motivating factor was victims’ actual or perceived sexual orientation. Such incidents represented 17% of the total number of hate crimes in the FBI’s report.

The FBI’s statistics on anti-lesbian and gay incidents continue to fall far short of the number of incidents tracked in the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs’ (NCAVP) 2003 report on hate violence, which recorded 2,051 incidents in only eleven regions across the nation – more than half of which involved criminal offenses. “The fact that the FBI’s statistics continue to dramatically undercount anti-LGBT hate at the same time that this community is experiencing an unprecedented and sustained increase in violence is simply shameful,” said Clarence Patton, NCAVP’s Acting Executive Director. “For NCAVP and its members, which clearly have far fewer resources than the federal government to consistently report more, and more detailed information on hate crimes against LGBT people should truly be a source of embarrassment for the FBI,” continued Patton.

NCAVP and its members captured information on 40% more hate incidents in 2003 despite the fact that its data only covered regions representing one-eighth of the nation’s population, while the FBI’s survey is purported to cover the entire nation. According to NCAVP, the deficiencies in the FBI’s survey point to an ongoing series of shortcomings with respect to hate crimes tracking by federal, state and local officials.

“The FBI only reports on cases sent by local and state law enforcement agencies, and where there is no mandate for those agencies to send information to the FBI, there is absolutely no compelling reason for them to do so, beyond simply doing the right thing. Even in states with such mandates there are shortcomings. According to the FBI, there were a total (for all hate crimes categories) of 727 incidents in California, and 520 in New York State. At the same time, NCAVP tracked 433 incidents in the Los Angeles area, 317 in the Bay Area, and 648 anti-lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender incidents in 2003.

“Clearly, something’s very wrong with the way our government is gathering information on the problem,” added Patton.

While the FBI’s statistics both overall and specific to the lesbian, gay and bisexual community (the FBI does not keep statistics on violence targeting people of transgender experience) were flat from 2002 to 2003, the number of incidents reported to NCAVP increased 8% in 2003, and 26% in the last six months of 2003 – the period just after the Supreme Court’s Lawrence decision and at the start of a call for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

“This year as we do every year, we offer the expertise of NCAVP, its members and the nation’s LGBT communities to the FBI in the hope that we can find a way to work collaboratively and get a better idea of the true prevalence of hate violence in America. Such collaboration would be especially impactful given the fact that last year’s tremendous rise in anti-LGBT violence has not, and shows no sign of abating,” concluded Patton.

PDFs of all of NCAVP’s Reports on domestic violence and hate violence can be found in the Publications section of this website.


The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) addresses the pervasive problem of violence committed against and within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and HIV-positive communities. NCAVP is a coalition of programs that document and advocate for victims of anti-LGBT and anti-HIV/AIDS violence/harassment, domestic violence, sexual assault, police misconduct and other forms of victimization. NCAVP is dedicated to creating a national response to the violence plaguing these communities. Further, NCAVP supports existing anti-violence organizations and emerging local programs in their efforts to document and prevent such violence.