The FBI has released the latest report on hate crimes in the United States in 2021 that reveals the third-highest number of such crimes committed in this decade, Voice of America reported.
The FBI revealed there were 7,262 hate crime incidents in the United States in 2021 and 8,263 incidents the year before, the report said on Monday.
However, the FBI pointed out that the two figures should not be compared because they are based on different data sets. The agency said that 65% of the 18,000 police departments in the United States submitted information about hate crimes in 2021 compared to 93% the year before, the report said.
The FBI said the decline was in large part due to its switch to a different reporting system, noting that state, local, state and tribal law enforcement are required to submit data on hate crimes to the US federal government.
Two of the country’s largest cities, Los Angeles and New York did not submit data, while the third largest, Chicago, reported no hate crimes, the report said.
Last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that some jurisdictions fail to report hate crime statistics, while others claim there are no hate crimes in their community – a fact that would be welcome, if true.
The FBI defines “hate crime” as a criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender or gender identity.
