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WASHINGTON — Reports of hate crimes against gays and religious groups increased sharply in 2008, according to FBI data released Monday.
Overall, the number of reported hate-crime incidents increased about 2 percent. These same figures show a nearly 11 percent increase in hate-crime offenses based on sexual orientation, and a nearly 9 percent increase in hate-crime offenses based on religion.
Racially motivated hate crimes fell less than 1 percent.
Among all categories of hate crimes, roughly a third are vandalism or property damage. About 30 percent involve intimidation of some kind, and another 30 percent were physical attacks.
