Hate crimes involving victims identified as Jewish or LGBTQ+ soared in 2022, according to an annual report released by the FBI, with civil rights groups calling the data "alarming."
The bureau's study released on Monday includes detailed data on more than 11 million criminal offenses in the U.S. that were reported to the FBI from more than 15,000 agencies across the country. The bureau notes that the data is incomplete, with the total national population coverage for its Crime in the Nation report at roughly 93.5 percent.
Race and ethnicity-motivated hate crimes remained the largest category, at 56 percent, followed by hate crimes based on religion and sexual orientation, the report shows. Civil rights organizations raised alarms about the hate-crime data increasing, with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) noting that 11,634 reported incidents in 2022 was "the highest number ever recorded since the FBI started tracking such data in 1991."
The ADL, an anti-hate organization with a mission to "stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all," said that reported single-bias anti-Jewish hate crime incidents "sharply rose," by more than 37 percent.
The more than 1,100 antisemitic hate crimes last year was the highest number recorded in almost three decades and the second-highest number on record, the ADL said in a statement obtained by Newsweek on Monday night.
ADL Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Greenblatt said the FBI data is "sobering" after the Jewish community has already been left reeling in the wake of the attack on Israel last week.
Hamas, which the U.S. designates as a terrorist organization, on October 7 waged the deadliest Palestinian militant attack on Israel in history, sparking the Middle Eastern nation to subsequently launch its heaviest-ever airstrikes on Gaza. As of Monday, the violence has claimed more than 4,000 lives, according to the Associated Press.
"Reported hate crime incidents across the country have once again reached record highs, with anti-Jewish hate crimes at a number not seen in decades," Greenblatt said. "At a time when the Jewish community is already reeling in the wake of a terrorist attack that constituted the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, the reality of this data is incredibly sobering. And yet, these numbers are not surprising. They are consistent with ADL's own data and the trends we have been monitoring for years."
According to the FBI report, the number of reported single-bias, anti-Jewish hate crimes jumped from 817 in 2021 to 1,122 in 2022 and comprised more than half of all religion-based hate crimes last year, a trend consistent with data reported in prior years, according to the ADL.
The report also shows that reported crimes targeting the LGBTQ+ community are also trending in the wrong direction, with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, calling the data "alarming" in a statement obtained by Newsweek on Monday.
Anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes were up "sharply" from the prior year, with a nearly 14 percent increase in incidents based on sexual orientation and a "shocking" almost 33 percent spike in reported hate crimes based on gender identity, HRC said.
The advocacy group added that more than 1 in 5 of any type of hate crime is now "motivated by anti-LGBTQ+ bias," adding that HRC has been tracking a "horrifying wave" of fatal violence against the transgender community, especially Black trans women.
In response to the FBI's 2022 hate-crime statistics, HRC President Kelley Robinson said in a statement obtained by Newsweek on Monday night that the rise in attacks on the LGBTQ+ community is "heartbreaking."
"The rise in hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community is both shocking and heartbreaking, yet sadly, not unexpected," Robinson said. "The constant stream of hostile rhetoric from fringe anti-equality figures, alongside the relentless passage of discriminatory bills, particularly those targeting transgender individuals, in state legislatures, created an environment where it was sadly foreseeable that individuals with violent tendencies might respond to this rhetoric. The FBI's data serves as another alarming indicator of the state of emergency our community finds itself in."
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Maura Zurick is the Newsweek Weekend Night Editor based in Cleveland, Ohio. Her focus is reporting on U.S. national news ... Read more
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