Hate crimes in US cities rose in 2022 compared to the previous year. For the fourth consecutive year, such bias-based violent actions and attacks marked the upward trend in a pandemic that has also taken its toll with the loss of human lives.
The latest 4.7 percent increase in hate crimes occurred in the first half of 2022, according to the latest study from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism (CSHE) at California State University, San Bernardino.
Other recent findings include rising violence, lengthening historical peaks in hate crimes, mass homicides, shifts in group targeting, and numerous records that have been broken since 1991.
The new 2022 data comes from a CSHE sample of 15 large U.S. cities, including four in California—Los Angeles, San Diego, Oakland, and Irvine—and follows double-digit percentage increases in each of the past two years.
Last year was the third time since national records began that hate crimes have increased for four consecutive years.
African Americans, Jews, homosexuals and Latinos were the most frequent targets in the first half of 2022, the study noted.
Notably, 2021 saw a decline in reporting in larger cities and states, and also a surge in anti-Asian violence.
In the largest national data set for 2021, covering 196 million residents in 18 states and the District of Columbia, CSHE found a cumulative increase of 21 percent to 8,896 records—more than the FBI’s 2020 total for the entire U.S. and the highest since the 2001 record of 9,730, fueled by the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Nine states set annual records in 2021, and 14 of the 19 jurisdictions surveyed increased.
Larger cities rose the most, 29 percent, in another 2021 data set of 52 large U.S. cities, covering 35 of the nation's 50 largest.
The 10 largest U.S. cities saw even more increases, up 39 percent, while reaching a record total of 1,664 hate crimes. Smaller cities saw lower percentage increases, in the double digits.
For 2022, CSHE found increases of about 5 percent in two separate surveys of police data for the first quarter and first half of 2022.
Hate crimes against African Americans and Jews have risen, while those against Asians have reached historically high levels since 2021 records.
In the latest, though smaller, preliminary CSHE data set from 15 U.S. cities, overall hate crimes rose 4.7 percent in the first half of this year, with Los Angeles flat but Chicago up 25 percent and New York up 13 percent from the previous year. Meanwhile, the first-quarter survey of 23 cities showed a 5.2 percent increase.
In 2022, the cities surveyed generally had the same groups represented, with the African-descendant community almost always in the top three for attacks, but in different orders that often correspond to demographics or local tensions.
In every city with data except Chicago, anti-transgender crimes, while very low in number, have seen increases as transgender residents face a hostile legislative and social landscape.
In Los Angeles, the study details, such hate crimes increased from six to 13 year-over-year through May, while in New York they rose from two to four.
The Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ), examining overall crime, found that aggravated assaults and robberies rose 4 percent and 19 percent in the first half of 2022 in major U.S. cities, with homicides down 1 percent but still well above 2019 levels.
This publication was supported in whole or part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.
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