I have been writing about the trajectory of hate crimes in America since 2021, focusing particularly on religion-based hate crimes. The Federal Bureau of Investivation recently released its Hate Crime Statistics for 2023, so it’s once again time for me to take a deeper dive into what the numbers may mean to different communities.
A watershed year
Total hate crimes across the US went up from 12,186 in 2022 to 12,355 in 2023, and religion-based hate crimes went up from 2,237 to 2,882. California experienced a small drop in hate crimes, but religion-based hate crimes rose significantly from 311 to 418 (+34%).
To put these numbers in perspective, the Bureau’s data is based on national coverage of over 90%, with near-100% coverage in California.
Anti-Jewish hate crimes jumped from 1,257 to 1,951 (+55%), making it the second highest among 34 communities covered by the data, Anti-Islam incidents went up from 176 to 266 (+51%), ranking 10th. A detailed look at the data suggests that the growing West Asia conflict since October 2023 may have triggered a major surge in hate crimes against Jewish and Muslim communities.
Anti-Hindu hate incidents went up from 25 to 31 (+24%), not as alarming as the spurt in anti-Jewish and anti-Islam incidents. It ranked at 26 of 34 communities. However, in recent months, there have been spate of vandalisms at Hindu temples, putting the community on edge.
In my previous reports, I had drawn attention to the large number of hate incidents in the US faced by Sikhs, year after year. Thankfully, there was a downward trend from 183 to 159 in 2023, but the numbers are still disproportionately high for a small community.
This story was originally published in scroll.in. Read the full story here.