Schools, colleges, and universities are the third most common place for hate crimes to occur in the United States from 2018 to 2022, with more than 4,300 crimes reported in the last five years, according to new FBI data. accounted for 7.7% of the total number of crimes. What is happening in the educational field.
The number of reported hate crime crimes across all categories increased from 8,492 in 2018 to 13,346 in 2022, according to a report released Monday by the FBI. The most common location for hate crimes was the home or residential setting, followed by highways, driveways, and alleys.
The number of crimes in schools fluctuates slightly from year to year. According to the report, the number of crimes reached a new low of 500 (3.9% of all hate crime crimes reported nationwide) in 2020, likely due to the impact of school closures due to the pandemic. The year with the highest number was 2022, with 1,336 violations (10%) at schools.
The data also revealed the number of crimes reported in schools based on bias motives. The most common crimes over the five-year period were anti-Black (1,690), anti-LGBTQ (901), and anti-Semitic (745).
Further disaggregation of anti-LGBTQ crimes in schools shows that the most common offenses were committed by mixed groups of LGBTQ individuals (342) and against gay men (306).
The report categorized educational settings into three categories: “universities,” “primary/secondary education,” and “unspecified schools/vocational schools.” More than half of hate crime crimes reported in educational settings occurred in elementary or middle schools, with a total of 2,815 from 2018 to 2022. The most common crime in schools was intimidation, followed by ‘vandalism/damage/vandalism’ and simple assault, the survey found.
The FBI’s latest overall hate crime report found the same three groups to be the most common targets. More than half of race-based crimes in 2022 targeted Black people, and more than half of religion-based crimes targeted Jews. The data also shows that crimes against transgender people have increased by nearly 40% compared to the previous year.
Experts have long warned that hate crimes tend to go unreported by victims or local law enforcement.
Although not included in the FBI’s school hate crimes report, several high-profile hate crimes occurred in the United States last year.
In July, professional dancer and choreographer O’Shea Sibley was stabbed to death in what police later said was an anti-gay hate crime. In the weeks since the October 7th Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy was stabbed to death by his landlord in his Illinois home, with accusations that hatred was the motive. In Jacksonville, Florida, a white gunman opened fire on a Dollar General store, killing three black people. And in December, a man was indicted on multiple hate crime charges related to the beating of an Israeli tourist in Times Square two months earlier.
