Nationwide, the number of reported hate crimes have increased by 114% since 2014, rising from 5,597 to 11,974.
2014’s numbers marked a recent low in reported crimes, the fewest since this data collection began in 1991 (there were 4,589 reported hate crimes that year). However, there’s a chance low numbers of any kind are due to underreporting rather than fewer hate crimes. For example, between 2010 and 2019, an estimated 56% of hate crimes were not reported to the police.
What is a hate crime?
While the word “hate” typically connotes strong feelings of anger or dislike, the legal definition is more specific: hate refers to bias against individuals or groups based on specific characteristics defined by the law, no matter the offender’s emotional state.
Federal laws identify hate crimes as crimes motivated by a victim’s perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability. Many states have their own hate crime laws covering similar bias categories.
Hate crimes include violent acts against both people and property: assault, murder, arson, vandalism, or threats of or conspiracy to commit these crimes. The FBI classifies assault and murder as crimes against persons, and arson or vandalism as crimes against property.
By contrast, “bias incidents” or “hate incidents,” which are acts of prejudice that are not crimes, and do not involve violence, threats, or property damage.
Both misdemeanors and felonies can be considered hate crimes depending on the details of the underlying crime, state laws, and the details of the case.
Is a hate crime a felony?
Is a hate crime a felony?
Federal law automatically classifies a violation of all hate crime statutes as a misdemeanor. An “aggravated factor” that could elevate the crime from a misdemeanor to a felony includes using a weapon, actions that result in bodily harm, sexual abuse, kidnapping, attempted murder, or murder.
Statutes that define when misdemeanors can be elevated to felonies include:
- Federally protected activities, which includes employment, public education, jury duty, travel, or the enjoyment of public accommodations
- Church Arson Prevention Act
- The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act
- Criminal Interference with Right to Fair Housing
Is hate speech considered a hate crime?
Is hate speech considered a hate crime?
Hate speech can be offensive and hurtful to those who experience it, but it’s not usually considered a crime. Speech is protected under the First Amendment until it becomes illegal conduct, such as threats of violence or incitement to break the law.
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Hate crime data collection
Although hate crimes were outlawed by the Civil Rights Act of 1968, it was not until 1990 that Congress passed the Hate Crime Statistics Act, which required the FBI to collect data about crimes that involve prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.
Since then, several other legal statutes have altered the definition of a hate crime, leading the FBI to widen its scope for hate crime data collection. The most wide-reaching change came in 2009, when the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act applied federal hate crime law to crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived disability, all sexual orientations, gender, and gender identity. It also removed the requirement that a victim be carrying out a federally protected activity.
What are the most common hate crimes?
The FBI classifies hate crimes into three categories: crimes against persons, property, or society. In 2023, 79% of hate crimes were against a person, 41% were against property, and 2% were against society.
Within these three broad categories are specific crimes. Intimidation was the most common hate crime 2023 at 39%, followed by destruction, damage or vandalism of property (30%), simple assault (26%) and aggravated assault (13%). All other crimes made up the remaining 13%.
What are the top hate crime motivations? How have they changed over time?
In 2023, hate crimes were most frequently motivated by biases toward race/ethnicity/ancestry (53% of reported hate crimes), religion (24%) or sexual orientation (20%). Just over 4% of hate crimes had multiple bias categories.
Crimes motivated by race, ethnicity, or ancestry decreased from 2021 to 2023, but they were nearly double what they were 10 years prior.
The FBI also tracks more specific biases within each category. The most prevalent biases in 2023 were anti-Black, anti-Jewish, and anti-gay male. Between 2014 and 2023, anti-Black hate crimes increased by 95%. Anti-Jewish hate crimes increased 217%, and crimes against gay males increased 84%.
Biases against race, ethnicity, or ancestry
Hate crimes against Black or African American people accounted for more than half of all race, ethnicity, or ancestry hate crimes in 2023.
Within this category, hate crimes against Black or African American people rose the most when comparing 2014 to 2023 (up by 1,627 crimes), followed by Hispanic or Latino people (+559), and Asian people (+298).
Religion
Religion-based hate crimes were the second most common, increasing 182% from 2014 to 2023 and accounting for 24% of all reported hate crimes in 2023.
Out of 2,922 reported religion hate crimes, 1,989 were anti-Jewish — more than double all other religiously motivated crimes combined. In ten years, anti-Jewish hate crimes more than tripled, and in one year (2022 to 2023) they increased by 57%.
Anti-Islamic (or Muslim) crimes were the second-most common religion-based hate crime. They were also the largest percent increase at 59% from 2022 to 2023.
Sexual orientation and gender identity
Together, sexual orientation and gender identity biased crimes accounted for 24% of total hate crimes in 2023. The primary biases were anti-gay male (41%), anti-transgender (14%), and anti-LBGTQ+ as a whole (33%).
Anti-LBGTQ+ biases, as a whole, account for all but 1% of sexual orientation- and gender-identity-motivated hate crimes. They’ve risen by 145% since 2014.
The FBI first collected data on gender-identity motivated hate crimes in 2012. Anti-transgender crimes accounted for 393 of 542 reported gender identity hate crimes in 2023, up 130% since 2019. (Due to the newness of the category to FBI tracking, we're highlighting the 5-year change rather than a decade.)
How do you report a hate crime?
If you believe you’re the victim of a hate crime or that you witnessed one file a report with the FBI at tips.fbi.gov or call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324). Non-crime incidents can be reported to the Civil Rights Division at civilrights.justice.gov.
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Page sources and methodology
All of the data on the page was sourced directly from government agencies. The analysis and final review was performed by USAFacts.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Hate Crime Statistics Annual Reports
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Crime Data Explorer
