The Federal Bureau of Investigation has issued its annual study of reported hate crimes in the United States. In 2017, there 7,175 hate crime incidents reported to the federal agency by local law enforcement agencies.
Of the reported hate crime incidents, 57.6 percent were motivated by race or ethnicity. Of these racially motivated hate crimes, African Americans were the victims in nearly one half of the incidents.
In hate crime incidents where the race or ethnicity of the offender was known, Whites made up 70.9 percent of the perpetrators. Blacks were 26.7 percent of the known offenders.
There were 214 hate crimes on college campuses in 2017 that were reported to the FBI. Of these 129 were related to race or ethnicity.
It must be noted that federal hate crime statistics do not present an accurate picture of what transpires across the country. Local law enforcement agencies are not required to report hate crimes to the FBI. Only 2,040 of the 16,149 law enforcement agencies nationwide reported any hate crimes in 2017.
Thus, there are huge discrepancies on reporting hate crimes. In California, there were more than 1,094 reported hate crimes. Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi, all reported fewer than 10 hate crimes.
