The United States had a total of 6,628 hate crimes last year, almost half of them the result of racial prejudice, according to an annual report released Monday by the FBI.
The report, which reflects the figures reported by 1,949 law enforcement agencies nationwide, includes violent incidents motivated by intolerance of a certain race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or physical or mental disabilities.
In 2009 the total number of such incidents was 6,604, the FBI report said.
Last year California and New York were the states with the greatest number of violent incidents of this kind, with 1,092 and 699 respectively, according to the report.
Just over 47 percent of hate crimes were based on race, while 20 percent were sparked by the victim’s religion, and 19 percent by his or her sexual orientation.
Around 13 percent of these crimes were motivated by the victim’s ethnicity or nationality, and a little less than 1 percent were due to the person’s disability.
In 2010, authorities reported 847 acts of violence against foreigners or people of different ethnicities. Of that total, 534 were committed against Hispanics, the analysis said.
Almost two-thirds of hate crimes in 2010 were against people, while the rest were chiefly acts of vandalism and destruction of property.
According to the FBI, authorities were able to identify the assailant responsible for the crime in 6,008 cases.
