220 NJ Hate Crimes Reported In Updated FBI Data

NEW JERSEY — The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s latest data on hate crimes shows more than 200 bias incidents took place in New Jersey in 2021 against people based on their race, religion, sexual identity, and country of origin.

This is compared to nearly 10,500 hate crimes reported across the nation in 2021. The FBI this week released hate crime statistics for 2021, which gives an overview of bias-motivated incidents throughout the nation and in each individual state.

The updated report is 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, Brian Levin, the director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino, told The Associated Press.

“We are in a unique and disturbing era where hate crimes overall stay elevated for longer punctuated by broken records,” he said.

While this data can offer a snapshot of bias crimes in the Garden State, it is not all-inclusive: only 184 of 578 law enforcement agencies in the state submitted data that year. While the number of hate crimes dropped off in 2021, so did the number of local police agencies submitting their data.

In 2020, 534 of 577 law enforcement agencies reported a total of 389 hate crimes in the state; in 2019, 556 of 577 agencies reported a total of 482 hate crimes according to our previous reporting.

Here are the hate crimes reported by NJ police departments in 2021:

• 141 based on race/ethnicity/ancestry
• 32 based on religion
• 24 based on sexual orientation
• 15 based on gender identity
• 8 with more than one kind of bias
• 0 based on disability or gender
• Total: 220

Most of these crimes took place against individuals, but businesses and religious organizations were also targeted in NJ according to the FBI.

A majority of the 2021 reported incidents in New Jersey (156) were intimidation, followed by destruction, damage, or vandalism of property and simple or aggravated assault. Data shows 50 of the incidents took place in the victim’s home, with 40 taking place on a roadway, sidewalk, or alley.

Twenty-three of these reported bias incidents took place online; 35 either took place at a public transportation terminal or park/playground.

The New Jersey bias crime report indicates 100 of the offenders were white, 27 were Black or African-American, and 11 were Asian.

The updated federal data underpins a report last week from the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, which found white supremacist propaganda surged to a five-year high last year.

“Hate crimes and the devastation they cause communities have no place in this country,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in a statement. “The Justice Department is committed to every tool and resource at our disposal to combat bias-motivated violence in all its forms.”

The original report released by the agency in December required data from law enforcement agencies to be submitted through a new system, which decreased participation — including from some of the biggest agencies in the country. The FBI then accepted data through the system it had used in previous years to increase participation and released the updated report Monday.

Nationally, the agency said hate crimes jumped 11.6 percent in 2021 compared to 2020.

The supplemental report released Monday shows hate crime data has been received from police departments covering 91.1 percent of the reports, compared with 64.8 percent represented in the December report.

With the supplemental data included, the FBI is now reporting 10,840 incidents and 12,411 related offenses.

The FBI report shows (percentages rounded and may not add up to 100):

• 65 percent of victims were targeted because of their race, ethnicity or ancestry;
• 16 percent were targeted because of their sexual orientation;
• 14 percent were targeted because of their religion;
• 3 percent were targeted because of their gender identiy;
• 1 percent were targeted because of their gender.

Of the 8,327 hate crimes classified as crimes againt person:

• 43 percent were intimidation;
• 36 percent were simple assault; 20 percent were aggravated assault;
• 19 rapes and 18 murders were reported as hate crimes.
• The remaining 70 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons were reported in the category of other. 

Of the 3,817 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property, 71 percent were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism.

Patch’s national desk contributed to this report, which also contains reporting from The Associated Press.