The number of hate crimes is up, according to the FBI’s newly released 2017 hate crimes statistics, continuing a trend seen the past few years.
There were more than 1,000 additional hate crimes reported in 2017 compared to a year earlier, but there was also increased reporting from law enforcement.
The increase includes a 37 percent spike in anti-Semitic crimes between 2016 and 2017. In 2016, participating law enforcement agencies reported 684 such incidents to the FBI. In 2017, that number jumped to 938.
Since 1996, the highest number of anti-Jewish hate crimes took place in 1996, when there were 1,109 such crimes. Since 2008, anti-Jewish hate crimes declined each year until 2015, when they began to rise again. This year’s spike in anti-Jewish crimes is the steepest recorded increase in the FBI’s online database going back to 1996. It’s also the year that represents the highest level of participation from law enforcement agencies.
Anti-Jewish hate crime incidents
2014: 609
2015: 664
2016: 684
2017: 938
The numbers are sobering, Anti-Defamation League CEO and National Director Jonathan A. Greenblatt noted in a statement. “[On Oct. 27] we witnessed the most deadly anti-Semitic hate crime in
American history. Today, we have another FBI study showing a big jump in hate crimes against Americans because of their race, religion, ethnicity and sexual orientation,” he said. “This report provides further evidence that more must be done to address the divisive climate of hate in America. That begins with leaders from all walks of life and from all sectors of society forcefully condemning anti-Semitism, bigotry and hate whenever it occurs.”
The hate crime statistics are an annual compilation from the Uniform Crime Reporting Program that tracks such crimes across the country. The information in the report comes from thousands of law enforcement agencies, which are encouraged to submit incident reports that meet the FBI’s UCR Program definition for hate crimes.
The program defines a hate crime as “a committed criminal offense which is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias(es) against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender or gender identity.”
The emphasis on motivation is important because offenders can incorrectly assume someone is part of a targeted group, as when, for instance, a white nationalist gunman went to an Overland Park, Kan., JCC and to a Jewish retirement community in 2014 and killed three non-Jewish people in an anti-Semitic attack. In such cases, the FBI still counts the crime as a bias crime because the perpetrator was driven by bigotry or hatred of a particular group.
The FBI tracks six different types of bias that motivate hate crimes: race/ethnicity/ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender and gender identity. Each type of bias is further divided. Anti-Jewish crimes, as the FBI calls them, are tracked under the religion category, which includes bias crimes against Buddhists, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Hindus, Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons,
Protestants, Christians, atheists and agnostics.
Here are some yearly statistics:
Total hate crime incidents
2014: 5,479
2015: 5,850
2016: 6,121
2017: 7,175
Looking at available FBI numbers since 1996, however, that’s still below the high of 2001, when a total of 9,730 hate crimes was reported to the UCR Program by law enforcement.
That year, fewer agencies reported, so the increase was not attributable to increased reporting.
The latest report reveals that 59.6 percent of all single-bias hate crime incidents were race-based, with almost half of the crimes committed against African Americans. Hate crimes against Latinos and Arab Americans increased significantly; crimes against Asian Pacific Americans and Native Americans
were up, too.
Religiously based hate crimes are up by 23 percent. 20.6 percent of the total hate crime victims were targeted due to religious bias. It was the largest number of religion-based hate crimes reported, apart from 2001.
Jews were the most targeted of any religious group, as 60 percent of religion-based crimes were against
perceived Jewish targets.
At the same time, the ADL cautions that the FBI’s statistics are likely low. Even with 16,149 law enforcement agencies submitting reports, there are many jurisdictions that did not report, including at least 91 cities with populations exceeding 100,000 people. 87 percent of respondents nationwide, including many big cities, affirmatively reported zero incidents.
“You can’t move what you can’t measure; without accurate reporting we don’t have a real sense of how widespread hate crimes are and what needs to be done to address bias in society,” Greenblatt said. “It is incumbent on police departments, mayors, governors, and county officials across the country to tally hate crimes data and report it to the FBI. The FBI can only report what the data they receive. We must do more to make sure that cities report credible data.”
It is also unclear if higher numbers represent increased hate and acting out or simply result from higher
participation from law enforcement.
In the District of Columbia, two participating agencies reported a total of 193 hate crimes in the District, 14 of which were said to be motivated by religion-based bias.
Last year, with two agencies responding, the total number of hate crimes was 115, 18 of which
were said to be motivated by religion-based bias.
In Virginia, 413 agencies participated; 65 submitted incidents reports for a total of 193 hate crimes, 42 of which were motivated by religion-based bias. Last year, 55 agencies submitted incident reports with a total of 122 hate crimes, 21 of which were motivated by religion-based bias.
“It is essential that state and local law enforcement agencies and local officials report hate crimes to the FBI,” said ADL Washington Regional Director Doron F. Ezickson.
“Several cities in North Carolina and Virginia with populations of over 100,000 did not report hate crimes to the FBI in 2017. Accurate data from every agency is crucial to illustrating a clearer picture of bias-motivated crime in the United States, as well as helping in its prevention. ”
Nationally, the ADL is calling on federal and state officials to track hate more effectively, including enacting better hate crime laws and implementing improved training for police officials.
The FBI’s UCR Program was initially conceived in 1929 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police to aid law enforcement in gathering consistent information across different departments. Since 1990, when Congress passed the Hate Crime Statistics Act, the UCR Program has been responsible for fulfilling the congressional mandate to collect hate crime data.
Liz Spikol is editorial director of Mid-Atlantic Media.
