At the commemoration of the fifth Anniversary of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act, the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division and the Executive Office for United States Attorneys launched a series of five regional trainings on hate crime prevention and prosecutions across the nation, which are taking place in 2015. Trainings have also been held in Kansas City, Kansas; Biloxi, Mississippi; Portland, Oregon; and Miami, Florida. Each brought together state and local law enforcement, representatives of NGOs, faith leaders and community groups; and service providers. In addition, for the first time, each training included a segment presented by the FBI's Hate Crimes Statistics Unit on the importance of data collection and the new FBI training manual.
Official figures record 3081 racist offences and 790 offences with an ethnicity/national origin bias.
This category includes hate crimes committed on the grounds of race and ethnicity.
Official figures record 635 anti-Semitic offences.
Anti-Semitic hate crime was originally reported under the category of anti-religious hate crimes.
Official figures record 178 anti-Muslim offences.
Anti-Muslim hate crime was originally reported under the category of anti-religious hate crimes.
Official figures record 95 hate crimes against Christians and 184 other anti-religious offences.
Anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim hate crimes were originally also reported under this category and are presented separately.
Official figures record 1,178 homophobic hate crimes and 109 hate crimes motivated by bias against gender identity.
Official figures record 95 disablist hate crimes.
Official figures record 40 gender-based hate crimes.
The Ephesus Initiative reported one incident of graffiti on an Islamic centre, and two incidents of damage to property, including an incident in which a mosque's windows were broken by thrown stones.
The Ephesus Initiative reported an arson attack on a church, thirty incidents of damage to property, including 21 incidents of damage to houses of worship committed by the same perpetrator, and one incident of theft. The Initiative also reported 19 incidents of vandalism and three cases of the desecration of places of worship, including one in which a nativity figure was replaced with a pig's head.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Kantor reported 36 incidents of physical assault, at least two of which involved the use of firearms, and 363 incidents of anti-Semitic graffiti, vandalism or damage to property.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) recommended that authorities improve their data-collection system for statistics on complaints of hate crimes and ensure that all law-enforcement officials and all new recruits are provided with initial and ongoing in-service training on the investigation and reporting of complaints of hate crimes.
ODIHR observes that the United States has not reported information on sentenced hate crime cases to ODIHR.