Hate Crimes Steadily Rose Throughout 2016: FBI

Hate crimes in the United States went up in 2016 compared to the previous year, according to statistics released by the FBI on Monday. In its annual hate-crimes data release, the FBI said that of the 15,254 law enforcement agencies that participated in the program, only 1,776 reported hate crimes in their jurisdictions, while the remaining 13,478 agencies reported no hate crimes at all.

The FBI notes that the hate crime statistics program collects data about criminal offenses that were motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, gender, gender identity, religion, disability, sexual orientation or ethnicity.

The data shows that there were 6,121 hate crime incidents in 2016 — compared to 5,850 hate crime incidents in 2015 — and of these 6,063 were single-bias incidents, which the FBI defines as an incident in which one or more offense types are motivated by the same bias. The rest were multiple-bias incidents, which the FBI defines as one or more offense type motivated by two or more biases.

Among the single-bias incidents, 57.5 percent were motivated by a bias against a race, ethnicity or ancestry and a little over 50 percent of the single-bias hate crime offenses were motivated by anti-Black or anti-African American bias, according to the FBI. The FBI reported that the second highest percentage of offenses stemmed from an anti-White bias. 10.6 percent of offenses were classified as anti-Hispanic or anti-Latino and 4.2 percent were a result of bias against people of multiple races.

The FBI said that 1,538 hate crime offenses were motivated by a religious bias with 54.2 percent of those offenses stemming from an anti-Jewish bias followed by 24.8 percent of offenses motivated by an anti-Islamic bias. Hate crimes motivated by anti-Jewish or anti-Islamic bias both saw an increase compared to 2015.

For crimes motivated by sexual-orientation bias, 62.8 percent were classified as anti-gay bias and 21.5 percent stemmed from an anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender bias, according to the FBI. Another 130 offenses were motivated by a gender-identity bias, 76 stemmed from a disability bias and 36 were reported to be motivated by a gender bias.

“The Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that individuals can live without fear of being a victim of violent crime based on who they are, what they believe, or how they worship,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement.

While the latest hate crime statistics released by the FBI show that such offenses are rising, the FBI's data is believed to be incomplete. According to the FBI, 88 percent of participating law enforcement agencies reported that there were no hate crimes in their jurisdictions.

“There’s a dangerous disconnect between the rising problem of hate crimes and the lack of credible data being reported,” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement. “Police departments that do not report credible data to the FBI risk sending the message that this is not a priority issue for them, which may threaten community trust in their ability and readiness to address hate violence. We will need an all-hands-on-deck approach – including community organizations, law enforcement organizations, civic leaders, and the active involvement of Justice Department and FBI officials – to address hate crime underreporting.”

In its statement, the ADL also noted that more than 90 cities with more than 10,000 residents either affirmatively reported 0 hate crimes or ignored the FBI request for hate crime data.

The Southern Poverty Law Center noted that government studies show that the actual number of hate crimes may be as high as 250,000 but the FBI figures "serve as a rough barometer for what's occurring in our country."

"Because motivation is subjective, it is sometimes difficult to know with certainty whether a crime resulted from the offender’s bias," the FBI writes. "Moreover, the presence of bias alone does not necessarily mean that a crime can be considered a hate crime. Only when a law enforcement investigation reveals sufficient evidence to lead a reasonable and prudent person to conclude that the offender’s actions were motivated, in whole or in part, by his or her bias, should an agency report an incident as a hate crime"

After the 2016 presidential election, then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch addressed the country about the numerous news reports about alleged hate crimes around the time of the election and encouraged people to continue to report such acts to local law enforcement and the Department of Justice. The number of such incidents being reported in the wake of the election also prompted the Southern Poverty Law Center to record acts of harassment and intimidation.

After being elected, President Donald Trump was asked about the rise of such incidents on CBS's 60 Minutes and he responded by saying that if it helps he says to "stop it."

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images News/Getty Images