2.6K Bias Incidents Fueled NJ's Largest Hate Crime Surge to Date: AG

NEW JERSEY - Bias crimes in New Jersey saw a record high count last year, with a 22 percent increase in bias incidents year-over-year from 2022 to 2023 and a 86.5 percent increase from 2020, state officials said.

Over 2,699 separate bias incidents reported in the state last year marks the highest annual total on record since the state began tracking them in 1994, according to preliminary data released by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office this week.

Findings show dramatic increases in incidents targeting Black individuals, with 1,101 incidents making up more than 34 percent of all bias incident reports last year (a 10.5 percent increase from 2022's reports). 497 bias incidents in 2023 were motivated by anti-LGBTQ+ hate, marking a 13 percent jump from the year prior.

“Hate tears at the fabric of our communities, and it makes our residents feel less safe,” said Sundeep Iyer, Director of the Division on Civil Rights. “We must continue to develop innovative public education and enforcement strategies to protect New Jerseyans from bias and hate,” Iyer added. “We know that there is much more work to do to fight the rise in bias and hate across our state, and our office is committed to using every lever at our disposal – and working collaboratively with our law enforcement partners – as part of the fight.”

Rutgers University police reported the highest number of incidents of any police department in 2023, with 77 bias incidents making up 2.85 percent of all reports received in the state. Read more: Rutgers Student Made Online Threat Against Israeli Student

Lakewood and Fort Lee authorities reported the second-highest number of bias incidents with 55 reports each. Police departments in Cherry Hill, Teaneck, Hamilton, Evesham, Manchester, Howell, Neptune, Ocean, Hackensack, Newton and Gloucester Township all reported over 30 incidents last year.

The 2023 data also includes 708 anti-Jewish and 107 anti-Islamic bias incidents, up 58.7 and 84 percent from last year, respectively. In a news release, the attorney general's office called the uptick of hate crimes to both populations "alarming" and "significant."

“In New Jersey, we will not stand idly by as the rise in bias and hate threatens the safety and security of our residents. Our diversity is our strength, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to ensuring that all New Jerseyans can live without fear,” said Attorney General Platkin.

“The Division on Civil Rights has worked hard to increase awareness of the harm caused by bias and hate incidents, to educate the public about ways to respond to these incidents when they do happen, and importantly, to implement strategies to prevent incidents from occurring in the first place. The initiative announced today builds on that important work, providing even more tools for us – and every New Jerseyan – to combat bias.”

Not all bias incidents are reported to police or subsequently investigated. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, over half of the victims of hate crimes in the U.S. from 2011 to 2015 did not report the crimes.

State officials were recently awarded a $347,000, four-year federal grant through the U.S. Department of Justice to fund the Community Peacemaker Collaborative, which aims to implement best practices and train community and student leaders across 21 counties on how to respond to bias incidents and provide conflict resolution techniques.

The state's report defines a “bias incident” as a suspected or confirmed violation of New Jersey’s bias intimidation statute in which a victim is subjected to harassment, assault, terroristic threats, or other specified acts “because of race, color, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, or ethnicity.”

New Jersey residents can repot bias incidents using the NJ Division on Civil Rights' online portal, which can be found at bias.njcivilrights.gov. Members of the public can also report bias crimes by visiting nj.gov/oag/bias or by calling 1-800-277-BIAS.

See the full breakdown of reported bias crimes below (note: the number of total bias incidents differs from the number of individual incidents as one situation may have spurred several bias reports).