FBI: Hate crimes spike 76% against Asian Americans

New updated statistics released today by the FBI reveal that hate crimes against Asian Americans spiked 76% in 2020, reports ABC News.

The agency originally released the report in September, but analysts found an error in data from Ohio and rereleased it today with new numbers.

The same report also found that Whites made up more than half the offenders while African Americans comprised 20% of the perpetrators.

“Every hate crime is an attack on the community,” Jay Greenberg, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s criminal division, said to ABC.

Greenberg acknowledged the surge in crimes against Asian Americans from 161 to 274 can be attributed to COVID-19.

It’s important to realize that the specific legal definition of a hate crime means the number of cases that are prosecuted is extremely low compared to the number of hate reports.

From March 2020 to February 28, 2021, the reporting site StopAAPIHate logged 3,795 incidents. Those complaints include verbal harassment, avoidance, and workplace discrimination as well as physical assault.

The vast number of hate crimes involved Black American victims- 11,126 victims in 2020 compared to 8,552 victims in 2019.

“Because a hate crime is defined as a violent or property crime with a bias motivation, that crime could be categorized a number of different ways,” he explained. “We would like the public to reach out to us if they believe that they are a victim of a hate crime. It’s not for the public to make that determination; we will work with our state and local partners and help determine how best to investigate that.”

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