FBI Report: 2020 saw the highest number of hate crimes in 12 years.

SCREEN CAPTURE

The surge of anti-Asian hate has spurred protests across the country.

While most of the U.S. remembers 2020 as the year of COVID-19,  the FBI's Hate Crime Statistics for 2020 confirms that for AAPI, it will be remembered as the year of hate. 

The number of reported hate crimes nationwide against Asian and Black people sharply increasedby 6.1% in 2020 as compared to the previous year, according to new FBI data released Monday.

Hate crimes targeting people of Asian descent rose by a whopping 70% last year compared with the number of such incidents in 2019, the FBI said. The increase marks the highest number of reported hate crimes since 2008.

“Last year saw a 6.1% increase in hate crime reports, and in particular, hate crimes motivated by race, ethnicity and ancestry, and by gender identity," said Attorney General Merrick Garland. "These numbers confirm what we have already seen and heard from communities, advocates and law enforcement agencies around the country. And these numbers do not account for the many hate crimes that go unreported.

“These statistics show a rise in hate crimes committed against Black and African-Americans, already the group most often victimized. Notably, they show a rise in hate crimes committed against members of the Asian American Pacific Islander community," said Garland.

The increase of hate crimes against AAPI communities coincided with the outbreak in the United States of the Covid-19 pandemic, which some racists have unjustly blamed on Asian Americans because of the coronavirus’ origin in China. Rhetoric attacking the Chinese government Donald Trump and his allies contributed to the anti-Asian American sentiment.

The 2020 data, submitted by 15,150 law enforcement agencies, provide information about the offenses, victims, offenders, and locations of hate crimes. Law enforcement agencies submitted incident reports involving 7,764 criminal incidents and 10,539 related offenses as being motivated by bias toward race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity. 

It should be noted that the UCR Program does not estimate offenses for the jurisdictions that do not submit reports. There are more than 18,000 agencies in the United States and more than 3,000 did not submit their crime statistics in 2020 guaranteeing that the number of hate crimes is actually much higher. 

In addition, law enforcement agencies do not apply the same definition of what constitutes a hate crime. The data also does not count incidents of hate that do not meet the standards of a crime that can be brought before a court.

A distrust of law enforcement also contributes to the underreporting of hate crimes.

"A lot of our community members don't know they can report, or they are afraid to report to law enforcement," said Quyen Dinh, executive director of Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, in a CNN interview. "They would rather share with the community groups they feel comfortable with."

Other highlights of Hate Crime Statistics, 2020, follow. (Due to rounding, percentage breakdowns may not add to 100.0 percent.) 

• There were 7,559 single-bias incidents involving 10,535 victims. A percent distribution of victims by bias type shows that 61.9% of victims were targeted because of the offenders’ race/ethnicity/ancestry bias, 20.5% were victimized because of the offenders’ sexual-orientation bias, 13.4% were targeted because of the offenders’ religious bias, 2.5% were targeted because of the offenders’ gender identity bias, 1.0% were victimized because of the offenders’ disability bias, and 0.7% were victimized because of the offenders’ gender bias.

• There were 205 multiple-bias hate crime incidents that involved 333 victims. Offenses by Crime Category

• Of the 7,430 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons in 2020, 53.4 percent were for intimidation, 27.6% were for simple assault, and 18.1% were for aggravated assault. Twenty-two murders and 19 rapes were reported as hate crimes. The remaining 27 hate crime offenses were reported in the category of other.

• Of the 2,916 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property, most (76.4%) were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism. Robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and other offenses accounted for the remaining 23.6% of crimes against property. 

• 193 additional offenses were classified as crimes against society. This crime category represents society’s prohibition against engaging in certain types of activity such as gambling, prostitution, and drug violations. These are typically victimless crimes in which property is not the object.

The FBI report and reports from AAPI communities have caught the attention of President Biden. In the first week of his administration, he issued an executive order condemning the surge in attacks against people of Asian descen and ordering all federal agencies to find ways to reduce the incidents. In May, he signed the bipartisan COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, expediting Justice Department reviews of anti-Asian hate crimes and making available federal grants.

“These hate crimes and other bias-related incidents instill fear across entire communities and undermine the principles upon which our democracy stands," said Garland. "All people in this country should be able to live without fear of being attacked or harassed because of where they are from, what they look like, whom they love or how they worship."

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