On January 29, local time, a report released by the FBI showed that hate crimes in the United States have increased significantly in recent years. In 2022, the most recent year for which it has complete data, about one in 10 hate crimes in the United States occurred on campus. From kindergarten through college, black students are the most common targets.
According to CNN, this is the first time that the FBI and the Department of Justice have cooperated to release a comprehensive report on hate crimes in elementary schools, middle schools and colleges in the United States. It is based on the FBI's "National Incident-Oriented Reporting System" and the data used in the analysis spans 2018 to 2022. The FBI defines a hate crime as a crime motivated by bias against race, ethnicity, religion, disability or gender.
The report said that from 2018 to 2022, more than 4,300 hate crimes occurred on U.S. campuses; in 2022, about one-tenth of all hate crimes in the United States occurred on campus. The most commonly reported crimes were intimidation, vandalism and simple assault.
Hate crimes have increased significantly in the United States in recent years. According to Reuters, the FBI's crime data compilation shows that the number of reported bias crimes increased from about 8,500 in 2018 to more than 13,300 in 2022, a record high. Reported hate incidents in schools have grown particularly rapidly, almost doubling in five years, from 700 in 2018 to 1,336 in 2022. Nearly two-thirds of such crimes occurred in kindergarten to secondary school, with the largest number occurring in secondary schools.
Campuses are the third most common location for hate crimes in the United States, behind homes and streets. From 2018 to 2022, more than 30% of youth hate crime victims were committed in schools.
The report said the most common type of bias among reported hate crimes in schools from 2018 to 2022 was anti-Black or African-American, with 1,690 reported hate crimes involving such bias during those five years.
According to ABC reports, of the 1,336 campus hate crimes in 2022, 890 occurred in middle schools.
Many experts say hate crimes are often underreported because they rely on law enforcement agencies' subjective assessment of whether there was discriminatory intent. Additionally, many victims choose not to report crimes for fear of retaliation.
The FBI told the media that it hopes the report will attract enough attention that state and local law enforcement agencies will be better able to provide schools with hate crime prevention resources than the FBI.