US News

Hate crimes in US rose 12% in 2021 — nearly two-thirds were race-based: FBI

By
Social Links for Stephanie Pagones
Published March 13, 2023
Updated March 13, 2023, 7:07 p.m. ET

Hate crimes in the US increased by 11.6 percent in 2021 – higher than the FBI had originally reported – as more than half of such incidents were race-based, the agency announced Monday.

Police departments across the nation reported that 12,411 people fell victim to 10,530 single-bias hate crime incidents reported in 2021 – a staggering 64.5 percent of which were related to their ethnicity, ancestry or race, the FBI said.

The second-highest number of victims, 15.9 percent, were targeted because of their sexual orientation and 14.1 percent of people were victimized because of their religion, the FBI said.

And 310 more incidents involved multiple biases, the agency said.

The total number of reported hate crime victims jumped 11.7 percent, from 11,472 in 2020 to 12,822 the following year.

FBI hate crime data
The FBI released new 2021 data on Monday that supplemented previously released statistics for the year and included responses from more police departments nationwide.

The FBI released its supplemental hate crime statistics for 2021 on Monday, providing more data regarding the prevalence of such incidents and related arrests nationwide compared to the prior year. The Monday report supplemented the FBI’s previous 2021 data, which was released in December and included fewer police and law enforcement departments, the bureau said.

Of the agencies that reported their hate crime stats, California reported the highest number of total offenses for 2021, with 1,872, followed by New York, which reported 810, and New Jersey, with 786, the FBI data show. Delaware reported the fewest number of offenses, with 11.

photo shows person keeled over a car hood wearing handcuffs
California had the most total offenses in 2021, with New York second. Getty Images

The types of crimes were broken down by those against persons and those against property. Just over 43 percent of the crimes against persons involved intimidation, while 35.5 percent were simple assault, the FBI said. Twenty percent were aggravated assault, while the remaining were rapes – 19 reported offenses – murders and “other.”

Eighteen of the total offenses reported were murders, the FBI said.

Meanwhile, the FBI said there were 3,817 reported hate crimes against property, with 71 percent being described as “acts of destruction/damage/vandalism.”