FBI sees a spike in hate crimes

Personal attacks motivated by bias or prejudice reached a 16year high in 2018, the FBI said Tuesday, with a significant upswing in violence against Latinos outpacing a drop in assaults targeting Muslims and Arab Americans.

Overall, the number of hate crimes of all kinds reported in the United States remained fairly flat last year after a threeyear increase, according to an annual FBI report. But while crimes against property were down, physical assaults against people were up, accounting for 61% of the 7,120 incidents classified as hate crimes by law enforcement officials nationwide.

State and local police forces are not required to report hate crimes to the FBI, but the bureau has made a significant effort in recent years to increase awareness and response rates. Still, many cities and some entire states failed to collect or report the data last year, limiting the conclusions that can be drawn from the FBI report.

In addition, experts say that more than half of all victims of hate crimes never file a complaint with authorities in the first place.

Even so, the FBI said there were 4,571 reported hate crimes against people in 2018, many of them in America’s largest cities, involving victims from a wide range of ethnic and religious backgrounds.

“There’s a diversifying base of groups that are being targeted,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, who produced an independent analysis of the FBI’s figures. “We’re getting back to more violence,” he said.