Washington, DC, November 14, 1995...The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed skepticism about a sharp drop in the FBI's annual hate crimes statistics released today and called for better compliance in reporting by state and local law enforcement agencies.

The 1994 FBI figures, collected under the mandate of the Hate Crime Statistics Act (HCSA), document 5,852 hate crimes, reported by 7,298 law enforcement agencies across the country. In 1993, the FBI reported 7,587 hate crimes from 6,865 agencies.

ADL National Chairman, David H. Strassler and National Director, Abraham H. Foxman issued the following statement in reaction to the FBI statistics:

There's a disconnect in the FBI's 1994 hate crime statistics. The good news is that the number of police agencies reporting continues to increase, but the significant decline in hate crime reports from 1993 does not square with either our own Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents or individual state hate crime data collection figures. We remain concerned that law enforcement authorities covering more than 40% of the American population are not yet participating in the HCSA.

The FBI has done a good job in its initial outreach and education on the need to identify, report, and respond to hate violence. The 1994 figures, however, are incomplete -- especially from such significant states as California, Massachusetts, and Illinois -- and we look for better compliance in reporting by state and local law enforcement agencies next year.

Even in this context of incomplete data, ADL is concerned about the substantial number of incidents in which Jews and Jewish institutions are targeted -- more than 900 of the 5,852 reported to the FBI. This high level of violence and vandalism directed against Jews ought to give serious pause to those who believe that anti-Semitism is not a significant problem in this country.

The HCSA, enacted in 1990, requires the Justice Department to collect and publish statistics on hate violence collected from law enforcement agencies across the country.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.