Hate Crimes Double In PA As Police Reporting Drops Off: FBI Data

PENNSYLVANIA — The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s latest data on hate crimes shows more than 170 bias incidents took place in Pennsylvania in 2021 against people based on their race, religion, sexual identity, and country of origin.

While the number of reported hate crimes more than doubled in Pennsylvania in 2021, the number of local police agencies submitting their data dropped off sharply.

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 Keystone Statee, it is not all-inclusive: only 41 of 1,504 law enforcement agencies in the state submitted data that year.

In 2020, 734 of 1,540 law enforcement agencies reported a total of 81 hate crimes in the state; in 2019, agencies reported a total of 45 hate crimes according to our previous reporting.

Here are the hate crimes reported by PA police departments in 2021 according to the FBI:

• 124 based on race/ethnicity/ancestry
• 17 based on religion
• 22 based on sexual orientation
• 7 with more than one kind of bias
• 1 based on disability
• 1 based on gender
• 0 based on gender identity
• Total: 172

Most of these crimes (164) took place against individuals, but businesses and religious organizations were also targeted in PA according to the FBI.

A majority of the 2021 reported incidents in Pennsylvania (64) were intimidation, followed by destruction, damage, or vandalism of property and simple or aggravated assault. Data shows 68 of the incidents took place on a public roadway, alley, or sidewalk, with 40 taking place in the victim's home.

The Pennsylvania bias crime report indicates 69 of the offenders were Black or African-American, and 63 were white.

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.