(NewsNation) — With Jewish and Muslim communities facing an increase in hate crimes since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war, the reality is the number of these crimes is likely underreported in the U.S.
The FBI reports the number of hate crimes committed in the U.S. annually; however, hate crime specialists warn that these numbers are often underreported, particularly in certain communities.
Hate crimes — those committed due to some biased motive like hatred of a particular race or religion — rely on community members to report these incidents and for police and local officials to take them seriously.
“There’s different dynamics that keep people from reporting hate crimes,” said Northeastern University criminologist Jack McDevitt, who helped the FBI compile its first hate crimes report in 1990.
McDevitt said that sometimes people don’t recognize that a crime they experienced was bias-motivated. Other times, they fear being retaliated against if they report the crime. Some groups don’t feel comfortable talking to police at all.
“If you’re a member of the African American community or LGBTQ community, a lot of times you don’t think of the police as a place to go for safety,” he said, noting that sometimes police also don’t take the reports seriously.
James Nolan, a sociologist at West Virginia University, argued that legal issues can also keep people from reporting.
“If you’re an undocumented immigrant, for example, you’re not going to want to call the police,” he said.
The structure of FBI hate crime reporting itself may also be leading to undercounting, as the FBI relies on reporting from police departments nationwide. The National Crime Victimization Survey, based on individuals reporting their own experiences, typically records a much larger number of incidents.
Prosecutors also often have a difficult time bringing hate crime charges. If a suspect does not explicitly state a biased motivation, it can be challenging for a prosecutor to bring hate crime charges against them. Many of the crimes against Asian Americans that were recorded and broadcast in 2021, for instance, were never charged as hate crimes.
Thaddeus Johnson, a criminologist at Georgia State University and a former Memphis police officer, added that police often aren’t trained to approach these crimes appropriately as well.
“You don’t have the officers who know, who are trained to see telltale signs and ask the right questions,” he said.
McDevitt said that one approach to tackle underreporting is through reinforcing their relationships with impacted communities.
“Do you know your local mosque and the folks who attend the mosque? Have you been there before … to offer assistance in case anyone needs police?” he said.
McDevitt also pointed to the Anti-Defamation League’s efforts to increase reporting among Jewish communities as one possible route to help other communities improve their reporting.
“If someone comes to their rabbi and says I was a victim of a hate crime … they’ll have a copy of a police report right there, and they can help the person fill it out,” he said.
Johnson put much of the task of tackling underreporting on the police themselves.
“[We need to be] training police to really ask the question and probe citizens and probe witnesses … to ask those questions so we can really get a more accurate depiction of what hate crime looks like in the U.S.,” he said.