Tuesday, November 15, 2016

2015 Hate Crime Data Released

Yesterday, the FBI released its report on Hate Crime Statistics 2015. The ADL which follows hate crime data closely has compiled a summary of the new report's findings and of changes from 2014:
Reported hate crime incidents increased seven percent – from 5,479 to 5,850.
Religion-based crimes increased twenty-three percent, from 1,014 in 2014 to 1,244 in 2015.  Crimes directed against Jews increased nine percent; 53 percent of the total number of reported religion-based crimes were directed against Jews and Jewish institutions.
Reported crimes against Muslims increased 67 percent, from 154 in 2014 to 257 in 2015.  257 anti-Muslim hate crimes is the second most reported against Muslims ever – second only to the backlash crimes in 2001, after the 9/11 terrorist incidents.
In 2015, crimes directed against LGBT people increased almost four percent, from 1,017 to 1,053 – and, in just the third year of data collection on crimes directed against individuals on the basis of their gender identity, the numbers increased from 98 in 2014 to 114 in 2015 – now almost two percent of all hate crimes.
14, 997 law enforcement agencies in the United States participated in the 2015 data collection effort – a decrease from 15,494 participating agencies in 2014.....  88 percent of all participating police agencies affirmatively reported zero (0) hate crimes to the FBI (including at least 66 cities over 100,000)....
There were 18 hate crime murders reported in 2015, the most since 1994, and the second most over all 25 years of data collection.
... [T]his is the first year for anti-Sikh, anti-Hindu, and anti-Arab hate crimes (anti-Mormon and anti-Eastern Orthodox and other religious denominations, too.  The anti-Eastern Orthodox crimes were the largest reported in this new category – 48 in 2015)....
[Thanks to Michael Lieberman for the ADL data.]