A new report from the U.S. Department of Education offers a detailed look at crime and safety at the nation’s schools and on college and university campuses. Data is presented on a wide range of indicators including hate crimes on college and university campuses.
In 2020, of the more than 21,200 criminal incidents that occurred on the campuses of postsecondary institutions and were reported to police or security agencies, 571 incidents were classified as hate crimes. This was down from the 759 reported hate crimes in 2019. But one must remember that in 2020 many campus were shut down or operated virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The three most common types of hate crimes reported by institutions were intimidation, destruction, damage, and vandalism, and simple assault.
In 2020, race was the motivating bias in more than half of on-campus hate crimes. Specifically, of the total reported hate crimes at postsecondary institutions, 55 percent were motivated by race.
Of course the number of hate crimes on college and university campuses is far larger than the statistics reported here. Undoubtedly, a large number of hate crimes are not reported to law enforcement agencies. Also, these numbers do not reflect the thousands of microaggressions and the use of racial slurs by students that are directed against African Americans that go unreported.
