Most U.S. hate crime based on race

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- The FBI says 7,624 hate crime incidents involving 9,006 offenses were reported to it in 2007, with 52 percent of the victims targeted because of their race.

The bureau's crime statistics also revealed 17.1 percent of last year's victims were targeted because of their religious beliefs, 15.9 percent because of their sexual orientation and 14.1 percent because of their ethnicity or national origin, the agency said in a release Monday.

Nine of the victims were murdered and two were raped, the FBI said. The most common crime was intimidation, which accounted for 47.4 percent of hate crimes against persons, while simple assaults accounted for 31.1 percent and aggravated assaults accounted for 20.6 percent.

When it came to offenders, 62.9 percent of them were white, 20.8 percent were black and 9.8 percent were of an unknown race, the FBI said.

Most the of hate crimes, some 30.5 percent, took place in or near homes while 18.9 percent of them happened on highways, roads, alleys or streets.

The FBI did not provide hate crime comparisons to past years in the release.