Hate crimes rose again in the United States in 2019, data released by the FBI on Monday shows.
Overall, there were 7,314 reported hate crimes last year, including 527 incidents in which Hispanic people were targeted, a 9 percent increase from 2018. That marks the fourth straight year that anti-Hispanic hate crimes have risen.
Additionally, religious-based hate crimes rose by 7 percent, with a majority of those targeting Jews and Jewish institutes. In 2019, there were 935 anti-Semitic hate crimes, compared to 835 from the year before.
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The number of hate crimes against Black Americans remained high at 1,930, but did drop slightly from the year before, while The Associated Press notes that anti-LGBTQ hate crimes dropped by one from the year before.
The data presented by the FBI makes it clear that hate crimes are serious issue in the U.S., but it may not reveal the full scope, since thousands of police departments do not share hate crime statistics with the Justice Department every year. Read more at The Associated Press.
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