NJ Bias Incidents Increased 45 Percent In 2020, AG Says

NEW JERSEY - State officials have released the most recent preliminary data regarding bias and hate crimes, with 2020 showing a 45 percent increase in bias incidents from the total number reported in 2019. Over 1,400 bias incidents reported in the state from 2019-2020 marks the highest annual total reported since bias crimes reporting standards were enacted in 1991, according to New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal.

The latest statistics were announced during a March 23 roundtable hosted by Grewal, Governor Phil Murphy and U.S. Congressman Andy Kim to discuss bias and hate crimes amid the shooting in Atlanta, G.A. that left eight dead - including six Asian women - last week.

During the roundtable, Grewal and State Police Superintendent Patrick J. Callahan released the preliminary data reporting 1,441 bias incidents that occurred in New Jersey in 2020, according to the New Jersey State Police's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) System. Findings show dramatic increases in incidents targeting Black, Hispanic/Latino, Asian and LGBTQ+ individuals from 2019 to 2020.

Sadly, acts of hate and bias are on the rise, both in NJ and across the county.

Our preliminary data shows that 1,441 bias incidents were reported to NJ law enforcement last year, up 45% from 2019: https://t.co/4czpMSlgq9
— AG Gurbir Grewal (@NewJerseyOAG) March 23, 2021

“Today’s reporting should serve as a wake-up call to all of us that we must redouble our efforts to push back against this rising tide of hate and intolerance we’ve been experiencing not just in our country, but also in the Garden State,” Grewal said in a statement.

“While the conduct of many of our leaders and the failure of social media platforms to take adequate action have helped fuel this rise, in New Jersey we are doing all we can to not allow hate to become normalized. By raising awareness as we are today and through our increased enforcement and education efforts, I am confident that we will begin to see these alarming trends reverse course.”

From 2010 to 2015, reported bias incidents trends in the Garden State fell by more than half, reaching a low point in 2015 with 367 reported incidents. However, starting in 2016, that decline began to reverse, and reports of bias-related incidents have increased each year since.

Here are the highlights of the preliminary data results for 2020:

• Black individuals were the most frequent targets of bias incidents in New Jersey, with 47 percent of all reported incidents in 2020 involving anti-Black bias for a total of 682. This is an 84 percent increase over 2019.
• Anti-Hispanic bias incidents increased 113 percent from 48 in 2019 to 102 in 2020.
• Bias incidents targeting Asian or Pacific Islander residents increased 82 percent from 39 in 2019 to 71 in 2020. That's more than a four-fold increase from 2018, when 16 incidents were reported.
• Bias incidents targeting individuals on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation, or targeting trans or gender non-conforming individuals increased 57 percent from 148 in 2019 to 232 in 2020.
• Bias incidents targeting Arab individuals rose 55 percent from 20 in 2019 to 31 in 2020.
• Anti-Islamic incidents increased 30 percent from 37 in 2019 to 48 in 2020.
• Reported anti-Jewish incidents declined 14 percent in 2020 compared to 2019, from 345 to 298.

The Attorney General also announced the additional steps that his office will be taking to make more data on bias incidents available to the public, including the release of data monthly instead of annually. The first monthly data release is expected in April 2021.

At least some of the reported bias incident increase in 2020 likely reflects standardized reporting practices, according to the Attorney General's Office.

“As we were starkly reminded by the horrific shootings last week in Atlanta, our country has a hate problem,” the governor said in response to the statistics. “And the data we just released in New Jersey shows that we are not immune to it. We held a roundtable today because we need to talk about this problem and tackle it head on. We’re taking the lead through innovative initiatives to allow us to identify the sources of bias and intolerance, and to take the right steps to eradicate hate in our wonderfully diverse state. We’re committed to protecting our residents and making New Jersey safer, stronger, and fairer.”

According to the preliminary data, Monmouth County reported the most bias incidents in 2019-2020 with 193 reports. Middlesex County follows with 149, with Mercer County trailing at 140. You can view the county-by-county breakdown here.

The state's report defines a “bias incident” as a suspected or confirmed violation of New Jersey’s bias intimidation statute in which a victim is subjected to harassment, assault, terroristic threats, or other specified acts “because of race, color, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, or ethnicity.” It is likely that the data is under-inclusive as the report only captures reported bias incidents. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, over half of the victims of hate crimes in the U.S. from 2011 to 2015 did not report the crimes.

New Jersey residents can repot bias incidents using the NJ Division on Civil Rights' online portal, which can be found at bias.njcivilrights.gov. Members of the public can also report bias crimes by visiting nj.gov/oag/bias or by calling 1-800-277-BIAS.