The FBI seal is seen outside the headquarters building in Washington, DC on July 5, 2016. (YURI GRIPAS/AFP via Getty Images)
SRDTF News
UPDATED 4:30 PM PT – Monday, October 25, 2021
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said 2020 saw the highest number of reported hate crimes in two decades.
According to the agency’s amended statistics for 2020 released on Monday, law enforcement agencies across the nation submitted more than 8,000 criminal offenses motivated by factors such as ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. The bureau added there were more than 11,000 victims of hate crimes last year.
The FBI said this is the highest number of hate crime incidents recorded since 2001, when there was a rise in crime against Muslim Americans following 9/11. Specifically, the new data shows 62 percent of hate crimes were linked to a victim’s race.
#HateCrimes are on the rise. In 2020, there were 7,554 single-bias incidents involving 10,528 victims, according to the @FBI Hate Crime Statistics.
Learn more: https://t.co/zA7fxjEUH8 pic.twitter.com/KYsB3Uu0om— US Attorney Nevada (@USAO_NV) September 13, 2021
“I’m aware of the number of agencies that have submitted zero incidents again and again,” said Assistant Director of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division Michael Christman. “It is certainly a priority for us to develop innovative and creative ways to really get better at obtaining this data so that we can have a full picture of hate crimes in the United States, and certainly accountability and transparency. And I think better policing will be the result.”