The American Jewish Committee (AJC) raised concerns regarding the “dearth of data” in the new FBI Hate Crimes Report issued on Monday.
The advocacy organization described the report as providing a “woefully inadequate” analysis of the reality of the extent of hate crimes targeting the US Jewish community.
“The FBI report on hate crimes is among the most anticipated federal government documents. But its shortcomings undermine the gravity of the problem of hate in the United States,” AJC CEO Ted Deutch said.
The AJC noted that for the 2021 report, 22 percent fewer law enforcement agencies submitted data than the previous year. The report is based on voluntarily reported data from police forces across the country.
The 2021 report did not contain data from several cities with large Jewish populations, including New York City, Los Angeles and Miami.
According to the AJC, the number of agencies participating has been slowly declining but the decrease in 2021 had a larger impact on the study's findings.
Hate crimes statistics in many cities were reportedly not compiled because approximately 4,000 agencies have not yet made the transition to the National Incident-Based Reporting System, a new data collection system that is meant to provide greater specificity. Thirty-five major American cities simply reported zero hate crimes.
“We appreciate the FBI’s efforts collecting and reporting on hate crimes, and for the work the bureau does every day to keep Americans safe,” Deutch said. “We look forward to working with the FBI and law enforcement agencies across the United States to secure reliable hate crimes data in the future.”
The FBI’s “2020 Hate Crime Statistics” report found that hate crimes were at the highest level in 12 years.
Over 60 percent of the victims were targeted because of race, ethnicity or ancestry bias and over 13 percent because of religious bias.