WASHINGTON (AP) -- Racial prejudice motivated more than half the 7,755 hate crimes committed in 1998 that were reported to the FBI, the bureau said Thursday.

As in 1997 and 1996, racial prejudice was the most common motivation for hate crimes, accounting for 4,431 incidents in 1998.In order of magnitude, there were 1,390 incidents attributed to prejudice over religion, 1,260 over sexual orientation, 754 over ethnic or national origin, 25 over disabilities and five over multiple prejudices, the FBI said.

The 1998 data come from 10,730 law enforcement agencies in 46 states and the District of Columbia, representing 80 percent of the nation's population.

In 1997, there were 8,049 hate crime incidents, of which 4,710 were racially motivated. But 1997 came from 11,211 law enforcement agencies in 48 states and the District of Columbia, representing 83 percent of the population.

There were nearly 300 fewer incidents in 1998 than 1997, but there were nearly 500 fewer police agencies reporting in 1997.

Because the number of agencies reporting varies under the voluntary system established by the Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990, officials caution against drawing conclusions about trends in hate crime volumes between years.

In 1998, crimes against people accounted for 68 percent of the offenses, with intimidation the most frequent hate crime at 38 percent. Vandalism and destruction of property accounted for 28 percent of all reported offenses.

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Thirteen people were murdered in 1998 hate crimes, with eight attributed to race bias and four to bias against sexual orientation. One murder was motivated by prejudice against ethnic or national origin.

Of the 9,722 hate crime victims, 80 percent were people and the remainder were businesses, religious organizations or other targets. Of the total victims, 57 percent were targeted because of race, with bias against blacks, the largest single category, accounting for nearly 38 percent of all victims.

Of the 1,720 victims of religious prejudice, more than 67 percent involved crimes against property.

In 1998, the largest segment of hate crime incidents occurred on residential property, 31 percent. Incidents in alleys, streets or highways accounted for 20 percent of total incidents, and another nine percent occurred at schools or colleges. The rest were at varied locations.

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