Anti-Muslim Hate Crime Surges 67 Percent
In a period of heightened anti-Islamic prejudice, increased Salafist Jihadist terror attacks, and political vitriol, hate crimes against Muslims surged 67 percent from 154 in 2014 to 257 in 2015, the second highest number on record since national reporting commenced in 1992. In 2001, the year of the 9/11 attacks anti-Muslim hate crime peaked at 481, and had been in a range of 105 to 160, until 2015's breakout. Anti-Muslim hate crimes in 2015 showed a significant increase in the proportion of hate crimes from the previous year as well. Anti-Muslim hate crimes accounted for 4.4 precent of all hate crimes in 2015, up from 2.8 percent for 2014.
The FBI anti-Muslim hate crime numbers for 2015 were right in line with original estimates released in September by California State University San Bernardino's Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism and reported in the New York Times, "The new study from Mr. Levin's nonpartisan group, based on official police reports in 20 states, estimated that there were about 260 hate crimes against Muslims nationwide in 2015." In the September study 4.5 percent of all hate crimes were directed against Muslims, again very close to the FBI numbers for the whole nation
Other Hate Crime
Over half of all hate crime, 3,310 or 56.6 percent, was committed on the basis of race, 52.7 percent of which was anti-black and 18.5 percent anti-white. African Americans comprise 13 percent of the U.S. population. There were 1,053 incidents due to sexual orientation, with all but 19 being anti-gay, bisexual or lesbian. Religiously motivated hate crime totaled 1,244 and comprised 21.3 percent of all hate crime, of which 53.3 percent was anti-Jewish, 20.7 percent anti-Muslim and 4.3 percent anti-Catholic. Less than two percent of the population is Jewish and about one percent are Muslim. There were 299 anti-Latino hate crimes in 2015.
Most Agencies Report "Zero" Crimes
Since 2002, reported incidents have generally been in the 5,400-8,000 range. The number of agencies participating in the data collection effort (most of which reported zero) was 14,997 agencies, down from 15,494 agencies the year before. However, the number of agencies actually sending in incidents is a fraction of those listed as participating. An Associated Press survey found that about 16 states had 25 percent or more of their police agencies not submit any incidents at all for six years.
Most Hate Crime Directed At People, Not Property
The most frequent hate crimes were property destruction at 1,698 ; followed closely by intimidation, 1,495; and simple assault with 1,436. Hate crimes are far more likely to be directed against people than are crimes overall, but many of those person-directed hate crimes are threats, not assaults.
A hate crime is a criminal offense motivated in whole or in part by the actual or perceived group status of another, such as race and ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender and gender identity. The FBI tracks over 30 different types of bias motivations within the broad categories listed above. In 2015 the agency added new subgroups; anti-Sikh and anti-Hindu under religions, and anti-Arab in the race/ethnicity category. The Hate Crime Statistics Act was passed on April 23, 1990 and the first national study featured 1992 data.
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