The FBI revealed that hate-crime reports in the United States surged in 2019 to the highest level since 2008, CNN.com reported.
The new figures indicate that hate crimes reported to the FBI by law enforcement agencies around the country have mostly increased during the presidency of Donald Trump. Between 2016 and 2017, the FBI found a 17-percent spike in reported incidents. The number of hate-crime incidents dipped slightly in 2018 before jumping again, according to the new statistics.
Of the 7,314 reported single-bias hate crimes, 16.8% were motivated by the offenders' sexual-orientation bias while 2.7% were motivated by gender-identity discrimination.
According to the report, "the victim of a hate crime may be an individual, a business/financial institution, a government entity, a religious organization, or society/public as a whole."
The full report is at www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-releases-2019-hate-crime-statistics.
