DOJ Releases Hate Crime Stats for 2021 Up 11.6%

 According to the FBI Releases Supplemental 2021 Hate Crime Statistics hate crimes are up 11.6%. If we went back and looked at the historical records we would probably find trends of different events, public discussions and activities associated with increases in hate behaviors. When there are economic issues, political issues, or international strife there is a certain percentage of society that will want to take advantage of others to feel "powerful". The numbers may not be telling the whole story or its problems.

This is why when activities happen we should not jump to publicly scapegoating people (Strategically its a waste of energy, is immoral, lowers the economy, and creates public dissent and distrust. Its called a looser approach to management even if it makes perpetrators feel good for a few seconds.). Words have meaning and when we talk about how bad one group or another is, it encourages certain radicalized members of society and those with mental health issues to act on their inner turmoil. 

(In hate we often see a characteristic and apply it broadly to an entire group. It is often that black and white exclusionary thinking that hints as deeper psychological distortions.)

These numbers are also unlikely to be fully representative of the total scope of the problem. They may reach statistical significance as accurate within their large database sample (assuming they were coded properly) they are unlikely to be the full reported because many departments (as we have seen in a number of reports about cities) might not understand what they see, accidently miscode it and at times intentionally underreporting incidents for personal, political, or other reasons.  

Browsing around the Net I came across a few articles. I only briefed them for a quick minute but basically it says that crimes are unreported by communities and local law enforcement. While I don't know anything about the numbers or their accuracy they do raise a concern. HERE. In addition, the second article states departments don't fully report such crimes for a variety of reasons. HERE.

Typically agencies report to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).You may also want to check out the Federal Crime Data Explorer.

What your going to notice about the numbers is that intimidation and simple assault are the methods of choice. That goes back to my argument about the mental health and hate connection (Were just starting to understand what laws are needed to ensure we help perpetrators deal with their mental health issues while protecting the public. We need more "character building" days. ) People have made this into a political issue but American lives are not political. There are fundamentals that should apply broadly across society and the DOJ appears to be trying to do that. They are still chasing the dream and they know we need to do it together!

Good reporting shouldn't be a matter of personal discretion by governmental entities. It will be hard for researchers to understand the numbers, and our politicians (After lunch of course. Don't worry we don't mind waiting, and waiting, and waiting...), to create solutions with inaccurate numbers (I remember when I crunched a few of these numbers for an old research project I found inaccuracies because of lack of data. The numbers are likely to be significantly underreported. Finger in air 50%+ more. I could be wrong, and most likely am, but I should be somewhere in the wide ballpark. No one knows this number for sure. I suppose we could pull reports on how many people underreport a lot of things from different studies and then model the total amount that would likely apply here. blah, blah, blah, nerd stuff.)

1.) The scientific community needs accurate reporting. 

2.) Save money from budget with fewer lunches. 

3.) Bi-partisan approach to protecting our fellow Americans + "Americans"= beefy enlightened AMERICANS. AMERICANS (Human Capital) + innovative technology + advanced manufacturing and seasoned with a little opportunity and good winds and no one will catch this country in terms of development. From our beginning we have always been strivers for freedom let us not drop the torch now. It is time for our politicians to be heroes and inspire us to achieve great things. 

This is a direct report from the quote.

Victims of Hate Crime Incidents 

• Over 10,500 single-bias incidents involved 12,411 victims.  
  
  • A percent distribution of victims by bias type shows that
  • 64.5% of victims were targeted because of the offenders’ race/ethnicity/ancestry bias,
  • 15.9% were targeted because of the offenders’ sexual-orientation bias,
  • 14.1% were targeted because of the offenders’ religious bias,  
  • 3.2% were targeted because of the offenders’ gender identity bias,  
  • 1.4% were targeted because of the offenders’ disability bias, and  
  • 1.0% were targeted because of the offenders’ gender bias. 
• There were 310 multiple-bias hate crime incidents that involved 411 victims.  

Offenses by Crime Category 

• Of the 8,327 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons in the updated 2021 dataset,  
  • 43.2% were intimidation,  
  • 35.5% were simple assault, and  
  • 20.1% 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, 71.2% were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism.  
• 267 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.  

FBI National Press Office (March 13th, 2023) FBI Releases Supplemental 2021 Hate Crime Statistics. FBI. Retrieved https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-releases-supplemental-2021-hate-crime-statistics