Levin expressed uncertainty about the sustainability of the decrease. The Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism provided data exclusively to USA TODAY, revealing that the number of individuals killed by extremists in the U.S. in 2025 has already exceeded last year’s toll and is expected to rise further. Levin warned that the current lull in hate crimes may be a precursor to a future eruption triggered by the widespread dissemination of prejudicial stereotypes.
The Pew Research Center identifies approximately 5.8 million Jewish adults (2.4% of all U.S. adults). Anti-Muslim hate crimes have surged by 18% in 28 cities, with hate crimes targeting Jews also rising by roughly 11% across 35 cities, projected to hit another record high. These figures align with observations made by advocacy groups for both communities.
Following the tragic October 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, the Anti-Defamation League reported over 10,000 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. due in part to a revised definition of such incidents. A Senate Judiciary Committee hearing will focus on the rise in antisemitism. Similarly, in the first half of 2024, the Council on American-Islamic Relations documented a 69% surge in complaints of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate, surpassing the previous year’s numbers.
Despite a decrease in hate crimes against Asians in 29 cities, instances of anti-Asian slurs and threats online have spiked following the 2024 election. Stop AAPI Hate reported escalations coinciding with inflammatory rhetoric from President Trump and his allies, particularly concerning immigrant issues and Chinese-owned companies.
Stop AAPI Hate’s Manjusha Kulkarni highlighted the disconnect between official hate crime data and the everyday experiences of marginalized communities, emphasizing the need for a more comprehensive understanding of hate incidents beyond criminal acts. Law enforcement agencies are urged to address underreporting and the challenges of prosecuting hate crimes to effectively combat bigotry in all its forms.
The latest available data from the bureau in 2023 indicates that not all of the country’s more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies are required to report information to the federal government, leading to significant gaps in national data on hate crimes. According to Levin, there are challenges at every stage of the reporting process, from victims failing to report incidents to cases being reported but not classified as potential hate crimes.
Levin also mentioned that law enforcement agencies in the midst of updating their methods of tracking hate crimes may not have a complete year’s worth of data to provide to the FBI before the annual report deadline. Despite recent updates to the FBI data, Levin noted that there are still discrepancies, with hundreds of hate crime victims in California seemingly unaccounted for in the statistics. The figures attributed to the Los Angeles Police Department by state and county authorities do not align either, raising further concerns.
In response to queries about these inconsistencies, an FBI spokesperson explained that the data reflects information submitted by the state of California for the LAPD and deferred additional questions to the department. The FBI emphasized that differences in how individual police departments define hate crimes may result in discrepancies between local and national reporting standards, impacting the uniformity of statistics nationwide.
USA TODAY has contacted the LAPD, the state attorney general’s office, and the LA County Commission on Human Relations for their input on the matter. Despite acknowledging that his own data is not exhaustive, Levin believes that the insights provided in his reports shed light on troubling trends prevalent across the nation, even if hate crimes in major U.S. cities unexpectedly decreased in 2024, as highlighted in the article.
This article was originally published on USA TODAY and explores the complexities surrounding hate crime reporting and data analysis in the United States, shedding light on the challenges and discrepancies present in the system.
