Crime
Hate crimes surge 12% in 2021, FBI finds
The new statistics released by the FBI show that crimes based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, and sexual orientation have increased by 11.6% from 8,120 in 2020 to 9,065 in 2021
March 14, 2023 8:55am
Updated: March 14, 2023 8:55am
Hate crimes in the United States increased by nearly 12% between 2020 and 2021, according to new data released by the FBI on Monday. However, senior Justice Department officials have said that the data is far from complete and the actual numbers might be higher.
The new statistics released by the FBI show that crimes based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, and sexual orientation have increased by 11.6% from 8,120 in 2020 to 9,065 in 2021.
Around 8,327 of the hate crimes reported were committed against people: 55% were assaults—including murder and rape—while 43% were categorized as intimidation.
The remainder of the crimes—3,817—were described as hate crimes against property, including acts of vandalism, destruction, or damage of property, according to the FBI.
About 64% of the crimes reported were prompted by prejudice based on the victim’s race or ethnicity, while 16% of the crimes were related to a person’s sexual orientation.
Crimes originating from religion made up 14% of the total, the statistics show. More than 310 of the incidents involved multiple biases.
The data shows that the largest number of racially-motivated incidents had an anti-African American bias, while more than half of the hate crimes based on religion targeted Jewish people.
While the FBI originally released hate crime statistics for 2021 in December, the data was not yet complete because several police departments across the nation had not yet submitted the information to the national reporting system.
“We will not stop here: We are continuing to work with state and local law enforcement agencies across the country to increase the reporting of hate crime statistics to the FBI,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in a Justice Department statement.
“Hate crimes and the devastation they cause communities have no place in this country. The Justice Department is committed to every tool and resource at our disposal to combat bias-motivated violence in all its forms.”
