Even as Sikhs remained the second-most targeted group in the US for religiously-motivated hate crime incidents, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recorded the highest number of anti-Sikh hate crime victimizations at 198.
Victimizations were also on the rise for numerous other faith communities, with 1,217 anti-Jewish hate crimes, 200 anti-Islamic hate crimes, and 29 anti-Hindu hate crimes, according to FBI’s annual report of hate crimes statistics for 2022.
The data reflect the highest-ever reported number of hate crime victimizations, with a 7% increase from 2021 to 2022, Sikh Coalition, a community advocacy group noted citing the report. Religiously motivated hate crime victimizations were at their highest since 2001, with an increase of 17% since 2021.
SALDEF asks faith-based organizations to unite in fighting hate crime (October 18, 2023)
In 2015, the FBI began collecting data about more categories of religiously motivated hate crimes, including anti-Sikh, anti-Hindu, and others, as a result of its advocacy, the group said.
The Sikh Coalition said it continues to believe that addressing hate remains an urgent policy priority in the United States, and that Sikhs remain disproportionately under threat—due to their distinct and highly visible articles of faith as well as other intersectional aspects of identity.
READ: Sikhs, Jews most targeted for hate crimes: FBI (February 23, 2023)
The group said it was encouraged that the White House consulted organizations like the Sikh Coalition to develop “Allied Against Hate: A Toolkit for Faith Communities” to help address hate crimes.
However, this FBI data “underscores the need for stronger initiatives by the federal government— especially as both international conflicts and divisive political rhetoric in the US and abroad that demonizes marginalized groups continues to fuel more acts of hate against multiple different communities,” it said.
The Sikh Coalition complained the FBI’s hate crime data remains woefully incomplete as hate crime reporting is not mandated and undertaken with serious care and standardized processes in law enforcement agencies across the country.
“This year’s data shows a fifth consecutive year of declines in law enforcement agency participation in the FBI’s hate crime statistics program,” it said.
The Sikh Coalition said it and other leading civil rights organizations continue to document additional inaccuracies in hate crime reporting
“Federal-level estimates from the Bureau of Justice Statistics put annual hate crime victimizations at 246,900, but this most recent data only captures 4% of that number,” it said.
READ: FBI reports over 7,000 hate crimes in America in 2021 (December 15, 2022)
Advocacy for federal and state policies that prevent, combat, and track hate crimes remains a top priority for the Sikh Coalition.
The Sikh Coalition said its flagship policy document, Combating Bias, Bigotry, and Backlash: Sikh American Civil Rights Policy Priorities, contains detailed recommendations for both Congress and the Biden Administration on how to improve, enforce, and gain better data from hate crime laws and policies.
There were over 11,000 single-bias hate crime incidents involving 13,278 victims and 346 multiple-bias hate crime incidents that involved 433 victims, according to an FBI release.
In 2022, the top three bias categories in single-bias incidents were race/ethnicity/ancestry, religion, and sexual orientation.
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The top bias types within those bias categories by volume of reported hate crime incidents are Anti-Black or African American for race/ethnicity/ancestry bias, Anti-Jewish for religious bias, and Anti-Gay (male) for sexual-orientation bias.