A report by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says reports of hate crimes increased across the state last year.
The report released Monday says the number of criminal offenses motivated by a known bias grew to nearly 200 in 2017, an increase of nearly 11 percent. The report says racial, ethnicity or ancestry bias was the known motivation for nearly 57 percent of the hate crimes.
Biases against black people made up nearly 38 percent of all known biases. Biases against those with disability accounted for 18 percent of the reported crimes, an increase from 6 victims in 2016 to 36 in 2017.
About 5 percent of the crimes involved biases against Islam. Assault offenses were the most frequently reported.
