Hate crimes track with broader public conversations.
The outbreak of violence in Israel and the Gaza Strip, triggered by the brutal incursion of Hamas militants on Oct. 7, has prompted a sadly predictable response: physical and rhetorical attacks on Jewish and Muslim people in the United States and elsewhere. A child stabbed to death in Illinois. A surge in antisemitism across the country.
Again, this was predictable. The pattern over the past decade has been that the targets of hate crime in the United States are often members of groups that are a collective target or a collective focus of the public’s attention.
On Monday, the FBI released data documenting the number of hate-crime reports in the country last year. The figure increased to more than 11,000 in 2022, up 7 percent over 2021 and double the level in 2014.
This surge isn’t solely a function of an increase in criminal acts. The FBI data relies on reporting from local law enforcement agencies. The number of respondents and the quality of their data can affect the top-line numbers. But some of the increase is certainly related to an actual rise in occurrences — as a closer look at the targets of those crimes suggests.
Race and ethnicity. A few patterns are clear from the FBI data.
