<p>The recent rise in reported hate crimes in the United States is usually interpreted as evidence of increasing prejudice-driven aggression. An alternative explanation is that changes in reporting practices and data coverage have inflated hate crime counts. Using longitudinal data from the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), we examine trends in hate crime severity by analyzing changes in the proportion of victims sustaining physical injury, net of comparable non-bias crime victim injury trends. Results show that the proportion of victims who suffered a physical injury in a hate crime has declined substantially over the study period, while injury levels in similar non-bias crimes have remained relatively stable. Hate crimes and non-hate crimes where victim injury is unlikely, such as destruction of property, also showed a marked increase over the study period. These findings are more consistent with instrumentation effects associated with expanded reporting and classification than with interpretations that attribute the rise solely to escalating bias-motivated violence. Although it is possible that other mechanisms, including shifts in the form of bias expression and changes in victim and agency reporting practices, may be concurrently operating.</p>