Schools are the third most common location for hate crimes: FBI
Published Date: 1/29/2024
Source: axios.com
Data: Federal Bureau of Investigation; Note: The FBI defines hate crime as a committed criminal offense motivated by the offender's biases against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender or gender identity; Chart: Axios Visuals

Schools were the third most common location for hate crimes in the U.S. in a recent five-year stretch, per new FBI data.

The big picture: After homes and roadways, schools from pre-school to twelfth grade made up 10% of hate crimes in 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation report, released Monday, said.


  • The report defines a hate crime as "a committed criminal offense" motivated by race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender or gender identity.

By the numbers: 4,343 hate crimes occurred at any school level from 2018 to 2022, per the report.

  • In 2022, 10% of total reported hate crime offenses occurred in schools. In 2018, this figure was 8.2%.
  • A 2020 downturn (to 3.9%) was likely due to online learning because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Overall, about 31% of youth hate crime victims experienced them at school, amounting to 2,134 people.

What they found: The most commonly reported bias at schools was against Black people.

  • This was followed by antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ offenses.
  • Elementary and secondary schools reported more hate crimes than colleges and universities.
  • October received more hate crime reports than other months.

Threat level: Intimidation, destruction, damage, vandalism and simple assault were the most frequently reported offenses.

  • "Analyzing commonalities of reported hate crime offenses in schools can facilitate strategies to mitigate or prevent these offenses in the future," the FBI report said.

Zoom out: The FBI's report didn't include data from 2023, but a separate report revealed hate crimes surged in some large U.S. cities last year.

  • Those include Houston, San Diego, Chicago, Los Angeles and Austin, the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism's report said.
  • This was the third straight year of spikes in big cities' overall average number of hate crimes.

Go deeper: Largest US cities saw record hate crimes surge in 2023