What race commits the most hate crimes

Thousands of law enforcement agencies voluntarily submit data to the Uniform Crime Reporting Program’s (UCR) Hate Crime Statistics Data Collection on crimes motivated by prejudice based on race, gender and gender identity, religion, disability, sexual orientations, or ethnicity.

This effort, which includes data from city, county, college and university, state, tribal, and federal agencies, allows the law enforcement community to recognize and document hate crimes. The collection was created after Congress passed the Hate Crime Statistics Act in 1990.

These statistics may be used to:

help law enforcement address issues for their communities
provide lawmakers with justification for certain legislation
supply the media with credible information
show hate crime victims that they are not alone
help researchers in determining trends in hate crimes

Participation in the data collection is voluntary for state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies, but it is mandatory for federal law enforcement.

The UCR Program defines hate crime as a committed criminal offense which is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias(es) against a:

race
religion
disability
sexual orientation
ethnicity
gender
gender identity

For UCR Program purposes, even if the offenders are mistaken in their perception the victim was a member of a certain group, the offense is still a bias crime because the offender was motivated by bias.

The most common hate crimes reported to the data collection are destruction/damage/vandalism, intimidation, and simple assault.

The Hate Crime Data Collection gathers data on the following biases:

Race/Ethnicity/Ancestry

Anti-American Indian or Alaska Native
Anti-Arab
Anti-Asian
Anti-Black or African American
Anti-Hispanic or Latino
Anti-Multiple Races, Group
Anti-Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
Anti-Other Race/Ethnicity/Ancestry
Anti-White

Religion

Anti-Buddhist
Anti-Catholic
Anti-Eastern Orthodox (Russian, Greek, Other)
Anti-Hindu
Anti-Islamic
Anti-Jehovah’s Witness
Anti-Jewish
Anti-Mormon
Anti-Multiple Religions, Group
Anti-Other Christian
Anti-Other Religion
Anti-Protestant
Anti-Sikh
Anti-Atheism/Agnosticism, etc.

Sexual Orientation

Anti-Bisexual
Anti-Gay (Male)
Anti-Heterosexual
Anti-Lesbian
Anti-Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender (Mixed Group)

Disability

Anti-Mental Disability
Anti-Physical Disability

Gender

Gender Identity

Anti-Transgender
Anti-Gender Non-Conforming

The types of hate crimes reported to the UCR Program’s Hate Crime Statistics Collection are broken down by specific categories. The aggregate hate crime data collected for each incident includes:

Bias Motivation: Incidents may include one or more offense types. Up to five bias motivation types can be reported per offense. The FBI collects information about single-bias incidents (crimes motivated by one type of bias) and multiple-bias incidents (offenses motivated by two or more biases.)
Victims: The types of victims collected for hate crime incidents include individuals (adults and juveniles), businesses, institutions, and society. Law enforcement can also indicate the number of individual victims, as well as the number of adult victims, and the number of victims under the age of 18.
Offenders: The collection includes the number of offenders (adults and juveniles), and when possible, the race and ethnicity of the offender or offenders. In the data collection, the term “known offender” does not imply the suspect’s identity is known, but rather some aspect of the offender is known, such as the offender’s age or gender.
Location Type: One of 46 location types can be designated as the location, such as house of worship, sidewalk, home, school, or unknown.
Jurisdiction: The jurisdiction includes data about hate crimes by judicial district (federal), state, and agency.

2020 Hate Crimes Statistics

In August 2021, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released Hate Crime Statistics 2020, an annual compilation of bias-motivated incidents in the United States. Though the number of reporting agencies decreased by 452 since 2019, the overall number of reported incidents increased by 949, contributing to a total of 8,263 hate crime incidents against 11,126 victims in 2020. While annual law enforcement agency participation may fluctuate, the statistics indicate that hate crimes remain a concern for communities across the country.

According to this year’s data, 62% of victims were targeted because of the offenders’ bias toward race/ethnicity/ancestry, which continues to be the largest bias motivation category. Participating agencies reported 5,227 race/ethnicity/ancestry-based incidents in 2020, a 32% increase from 2019. Anti-Black or African American hate crimes continue to be the largest bias incident victim category, with 2,871 incidents in 2020, a 49% increase since 2019. Additionally, there were 279 anti-Asian incidents reported in 2020, a 77% increase since 2019. The other largest categories of hate crimes include anti-Hispanic or Latino incidents, with 517, and anti-White incidents, with 869 in total.

Incidents related to religion decreased 18% from 2019, with 1,244 total incidents reported. The largest category included:

683 anti-Jewish incidents, down 28% since 2019;
110 anti-Muslim incidents, down 38%;
15 anti-Buddhist incidents, up 200%; and
89 anti-Sikh incidents, up 82%.

Incidents related to disability decreased 17% from 2019, with 130 total incidents reported. By category:

Anti-mental disability incidents decreased by 29% since 2019, and
Anti-physical disability incidents increased by 8%.

Incidents related to gender and gender identity increased since 2019 with increases in gender-related incidents by 9% and gender identity-related incidents by 34%. There were:

50 anti-female incidents, a decrease of 4% since 2019;
25 anti-male incidents, an increase of 47%;
213 anti-transgender incidents, an increase of 41%; and
53 anti-gender non-conforming incidents, an increase of 13%.

See the Hate Crimes website for more highlights from the data. The full data set can be found on the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer website.

The FBI Hate Crime Statistics is an annual compilation of bias-motivated incidents in the United States. For the purpose of the report, a hate crime is defined as a criminal offense which is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias(es) against a person based on race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity. The 2020 data provides information voluntarily submitted from 15,136 of 18,623 law enforcement agencies around the country on offenses, victims, offenders, and locations of hate crimes.

For more information on CRS services and programs related to preventing and responding to hate crimes, view Our Work page or CRS's Programs and Services brochure for an overview of offerings.

FBI Releases 2020 Hate Crime Statistics

The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program serves as the national repository for crime data voluntarily collected and submitted by law enforcement. Its primary objective is to generate reliable information for use in law enforcement administration, operation, and management. The 2020 hate crimes data, submitted by 15,138 law enforcement agencies, provide information about the offenses, victims, offenders, and locations of hate crimes. Of these agencies who submitted incident reports, there were 8,263 hate crime incidents involving 11,129 offenses.

Below are some highlights from the data.

Victims of Hate Crime Incidents

8,052 single-bias incidents involved 11,126 victims
In 211 incidents, a total of 346 victims were targeted because of more than one bias

Bias Motivation Categories for Victims of Single-bias Incidents in 2020

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Offenses by Crime Category

Known Offenders

Location Type

Among the 11,129 hate crime offenses reported: