USA's premier investigation agency FBI on 13 March 2023 released data which showed a spike in the number of hate crimes in the country in 2021.
America recorded a nearly 12% increase in hate crimes in 2021. 64.5% of the victims were targeted due to their race, ethnicity or ancestry. 16% were targeted over their sexual orientation, while 14% of cases involved religious bias, according to the FBI report.
The nearly 12 per cent increase marks a reversal of a previous, incomplete report from the agency that appeared to show a drop but was missing data from some of the nation's largest cities, including New York and Los Angeles.
The hate crime numbers now include those and other large departments, and the total is the highest level in decades, said Brian Levin, the director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino.
“We are in a unique and disturbing era where hate crimes overall stay elevated for longer punctuated by broken records,” he said.
(With agency inputs)
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