FBI Data: Hate Crimes Rise in US

The number of hate crimes in the U.S. rose last year, according to an Axios review of new FBI data.

Racial, anti-Jewish, and anti-LGBTQ bias were the leading form of hate crimes in 2022, according to the data.

Axios reported Wednesday that the number of anti-Jewish hate crimes jumped 36% in 2022 from the previous year, and anti-LGBTQ bias crimes rose 19%. Anti-gay hate crimes involving only gay men increased 13%.

Anti-Black bias crimes rose 4%, and anti-Latino hate crimes went up 6%.

Of 11,643 hate crimes, 3,424 were anti-Black, 1,124 were anti-Jewish, and 1,077 were anti-LGBTQ.

Brian Levin, the recently retired director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, told Axios that anti-Jewish hate crimes have increased dramatically after each news-dominating Middle East conflict in the past 30 years.

Thus, he worries that the Israel-Hamas war will cause a spike in anti-Jewish bias crimes.

The Anti-Defamation League in May published a report that found more than 5,000 examples from February of "virulent antisemitism from 2,173 accounts" on social media platform X.

Axios reported that the Center for Countering Digital Hate said bigoted speech surged on X after Elon Musk's acquisition and Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, posted antisemitic messages on social media.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest LGBTQ civil rights organization, told Axios in a statement that, "[t]he rise in hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community is both shocking and heartbreaking, yet sadly, not unexpected."

HRC added that a "constant stream of hostile rhetoric from fringe anti-equality figures" is causing more violence against LGBTQ people.

Interestingly, anti-Asian hate crimes fell by 34%, which Axios says is because "fears over the pandemic subsided," considering the COVID-19 pandemic started in China.

FBI data showed 181 anti-Sikh, 158 anti-Muslim, 107 anti-Catholic, and 97 other Christian hate crimes under religious attacks in 2022.

Axios said most of the nation's 10 largest cities saw major jumps in hate crimes last year.

Levin told Axios the FBI data suffers from some states doing a poor job at collecting stats.

"We still have vast geographic deserts in places like the South and the Mountain states. So we probably have even more hate crimes," Levin said, Axios reported.