FBI Reports Hate Crimes Have Increased By 17 Percent In 2017

Hate crimes have increased by 17 percent last year compared to numbers in 2016, the FBI reports.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

The FBI released a yearly “Hate Crime Statistics” report, which consists of various bias-motivated incidents that were submitted to the FBI by 16,149 law enforcement agencies. The report shows law enforcement agencies reported 7,175 hate crimes in 2017, and in 2016 the law enforcement agencies reported 6,121. Not only did the number of hate crimes increase, so did the number of agencies reporting them. A thousand more agencies have reported hate crimes compared to last year.

Out of the 7,106 isolated hate crimes 59.6 percent of the victims were targeted because of the offenders’ race/ethnicity/ancestry bias; 20.6 percent were targeted because of sexual-orientation bias; 1.9 percent were targeted because of gender identity bias; and 0.6 percent were targeted because of gender bias, according to ABC 15. In 2017, there were 1,679 religious-based hate crimes, 58.1 percent were anti-Jewish, while 18.6 percent were anti-Muslim.

Acting Attorney General, Matthew Whitaker, said the report “is a call to action — and we will heed that call.” In a statement released on Tuesday, Whitaker wrote, “The Department of Justice’s top priority is to reduce violent crime in America, and hate crimes are violent crimes,” the statement read. 

“I am particularly troubled by the increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes — which were already the most common religious hate crimes in the United States — that is well documented in this report. The American people can be assured that this Department has already taken significant and aggressive actions against these crimes and that we will vigorously and effectively defend their rights,” the statement read.