FBI Releases Supplemental Data on Hate Crimes, Shows Increase in 2021
Hate crimes in the United States rose 11.6 percent in 2021, from the prior year. That’s according to supplemental data released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The supplemental data was needed, because the FBI’s 2021 hate crimes report was incomplete due to the transition to collect statistics entirely through the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), which collects incident reports in deeper detail.
Several of the nation’s largest law enforcement agencies and state and local police forces, including those in New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, did not make the transition in time, leaving the 2021 data incomplete at the time of initial release.
As a result, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program accepted submissions from the summary reporting data collection system, as well as additional NIBRS reports from over 3,000 law enforcement agencies. As a result, 91.1 percent of the population is represented in the newly released supplemental data, compared to just 64.8 percent of the population in the initial December 2022 report.
“Preventing, investigating, and prosecuting hate crimes are top priorities for the Justice Department, and reporting is key to each of those priorities. The FBI’s supplemental report demonstrates our unwavering commitment to work with our state and local partners to increase reporting and provide a more complete picture of hate crimes nationwide,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta.
The new figures find that nationally, hate crime incidents in 2021 rose 11.6 percent from the prior year to a total of 9,065 incidents.
The report found that there were over 10,500 single-bias incidents involving 12,411 victims, and 310 multiple-bias incidents involving 411 victims.
The report found that:
· 64.5 percent of victims were targeted due to their race/ethnicity/ancestry
· 15.9 percent were targeted due to their sexual orientation
· 14.1 percent were targeted due to their religion
· 3.2 percent were targeted due to their gender identity
· 1.4 percent were targeted due to their disability
· 1 percent were targeted due to their gender
In terms of criminal offenses:
· 43.2 percent were intimidation
· 35.5 percent were simple assault
· 20.1 percent were aggravated assault
· 19 rapes and 18 murders
More than 3,800 hate crimes were classified as crimes against property, with more than 71 percent of those classified as act of destruction/damage/vandalism.
DOJ says it has been trying to help law enforcement agencies transition to the NIBRS system, with $120 million in grants to speed along the process.
In its news release, DOJ also highlighted other steps it’s taking to fight hate crime. These include aggressively investigating and prosecuting alleged hate crimes, designating a deputy attorney general as the first-ever Anti-Hate Crimes Resource Coordinator, and making civil rights violations and hate crimes investigations priorities in the FBI’s 56 field offices.