Hate crimes up by double digits last year: FBI

Hate crimes in the United States spiked by 35 percent in 2021 according to FBI statistics, led by a sharp rise in attacks motivated by sexual orientation.

The FBI recorded a total of 10,840 hate crime incidents in 2021, up from 8,052 in 2020, according to a supplemental addition to the agency’s annual hate crimes report.

The annual report tracks hate crime incidents based on reports from thousands of law enforcement agencies nationwide; a first 2021 report issued by the FBI in December showed a decrease in hate crimes, but it relied on incomplete data, according to the agency.

The supplemental report, which includes a more complete data set from law enforcement, paints a stark picture of bias-fueled crime in the United States.

Proportionate to their total population, members of the gay, lesbian and bisexual communities were the second most likely to suffer a hate crime in 2021, and anti-LGB hate crimes grew faster than hate crimes against other groups from 2020 to 2021.

The FBI records hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation separately from those targeting people over their gender identity.

The FBI recorded 1,707 anti-LGB hate crimes in 2021, a 54 percent increase from the 1,110 recorded in 2020. In those incidents, 1,979 people were targeted for their sexual orientation.

According to UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute, there are about 10 million people in the United States who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual — based on that estimate, roughly one in every 5,000 lesbian, gay or bisexual people in the U.S. was a victim of a hate crime in 2021.

Hate crimes against transgender and gender non-conforming people rose 29 percent in 2021, with 342 incidents recorded versus 266 incidents in 2020.

According to the UCLA study, there are about 1.4 million transgender people in the United States, meaning the FBI recorded one anti-transgender hate crime victim for every 3,571 members of that community.

Notably, gay and transgender victims were also the most likely to be murdered by their assailants.

Of the nine single-bias murders or nonnegligent manslaughter hate crimes registered in 2021, five targeted members of the LGBT community.

In raw numbers, the largest motivator of hate crimes was discrimination based on race, ethnicity or ancestry.

The FBI recorded 6,643 hate crimes in that category in 2021, up 27 percent from the 5,227 crimes recorded in 2020.

Black Americans were the most-often targeted group for their race or ethnicity — one anti-Black hate victim was reported for about every 12,000 Black people in the country.

The FBI recorded 3,277 anti-Black hate crime incidents in 2021, and 3,906 people were victimized.

Asian Americans were also disproportionately targeted, with roughly one reported victim for every 23,000 members of that group. In total, 746 incidents targeted 845 Asian Americans.

The FBI also recorded 909 anti-Hispanic hate crime victims over 698 incidents, accounting for roughly one reported victim for every 70,000 Hispanics in the country.

White American hate crime victims were numerically the second largest group of racially-targeted victims after Black Americans, but proportionately were much less likely to be targets of hate crimes than any other large group covered in the report.

In 1,107 incidents, 1,341 white Americans were targeted for their race, accounting for one victim for every 170,000 white Americans.

White and Black Americans were the most likely to commit hate crimes, according to the report.

The FBI recorded 5,191 hate crimes committed by white Americans, 2,036 by Black Americans, 1,405 by perpetrators of an unknown race, 793 by Hispanics, and 404 by perpetrators of multiple races. 

Hate crimes based on religion generally rose 28 percent, with 1,510 incidents in 2021, compared to 1,244 in 2020.

The most targeted religions were Sikhism, Judaism and Islam.

Sikhs were proportionately the most targeted group in the United States — according to the Sikh Coalition, there are approximately half a million Sikhs in the country.

The FBI registered 185 incidents targeting 195 Sikhs, meaning roughly one in every 2,500 Sikhs was targeted in a recorded hate crime.

The FBI recorded 817 antisemitic incidents, targeting 869 people, roughly one out of every 9,200 Jews in the country.

The agency also recorded 152 incidents targeting Muslims, with 190 victims, about one in every 20,000 Muslims.