FBI Hate Crime Report Recorded Over 100 Incidents In Wisconsin In 2021

WISCONSIN — In 2021, the FBI recorded nearly 10,500 hate crime incidents. Wisconsin was home to 120 of those incidents, according to a report released by the agency in March.

The updated report is a reversal of a previous incomplete report from the agency that appeared to show a drop but was missing data from some of the nation’s largest cities, including New York and Los Angeles. The hate crime numbers now include those and other large departments, and the total is the highest level in decades, Brian Levin, the director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino, told The Associated Press.

In Wisconsin, 342 agencies participated in the survey, and 69 of them submitted relevant incident reports.

“We are in a unique and disturbing era where hate crimes overall stay elevated for longer punctuated by broken records,” he said.

The updated data underpins a report last week from the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, which found white supremacist propaganda surged to a five-year high last year. Wisconsin was not exempt from the surge in white supremacist propaganda.

“Hate crimes and the devastation they cause communities have no place in this country,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in a statement. “The Justice Department is committed to every tool and resource at our disposal to combat bias-motivated violence in all its forms.”

The original report released by the agency in December required data from law enforcement agencies to be submitted through a new system, which decreased participation — including from some of the biggest agencies in the country. The FBI then accepted data through the system it had used in previous years to increase participation and released the updated report Monday.

Nationally, the agency said hate crimes jumped 11.6 percent in 2021 compared to 2020.

The supplemental report released Monday shows hate crime data has been received from police departments covering 91.1 percent of the reports, compared with 64.8 percent represented in the December report.

With the supplemental data included, the FBI is now reporting 10,840 incidents and 12,411 related offenses.

The FBI report shows that nationwide (percentages rounded and may not add up to 100):

• 65 percent of victims were targeted because of their race, ethnicity or ancestry;
• 16 percent were targeted because of their sexual orientation;
• 14 percent were targeted because of their religion;
• 3 percent were targeted because of their gender identiy;
• 1 percent were targeted because of their gender.

Of the 8,327 hate crimes classified as crimes againt person:

• 43 percent were intimidation;
• 36 percent were simple assault; 20 percent were aggravated assault;
• 19 rapes and 18 murders were reported as hate crimes.
• The remaining 70 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons were reported in the category of other. 

Of the 3,817 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property, 71 percent were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.