MONTGOMERY, Alabama — Today, the FBI released the 2024 Hate Crimes Statistics Act Report, which compiles hate crime data from the nation’s 19,000 federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies.
While 2024 saw a slight decrease in the number of hate crime incidents from the record high in 2023, the report showed there are still alarming levels of hate crimes directed against Black Americans, LGBTQ+ Americans and religious minorities.
Despite the stubbornly high numbers of incidents, the Trump administration’s proposed 2026 budget eliminates funding for hate crime training and prevention programs, and the Department of Justice has terminated more than 50 hate crime prevention initiatives across the country.
“With a noticeable increase in both policies rooted in white supremacy and hate crimes, leadership shifts, early intervention and prevention are key to reversing this dangerous trend and to keeping targeted communities safe,” said LaShawn Warren, chief policy officer at the SPLC. “We cannot implement effective prevention strategies without an accurate understanding of where hate incidents are occurring and who is being harmed. Congress members are public servants and have an ethical responsibility to pass legislation to ensure all communities are safe, but particularly Black, Brown, LGBTQ+ and religious minority groups who are often targets of hate crimes. This requires public investments in research and expanded resources to track and encourage hate crime reporting and prevention programs, especially in the South, where reporting remains among the most incomplete and unreliable.”
The number of hate crimes reported to the FBI for Southern states in 2024 include:
- Alabama: 174 reported hate crimes, down from 182 reported hate crimes in 2023.
- Florida: 194 reported hate crimes, down from 234 reported hate crimes in 2023.
- Georgia: 85 reported hate crimes in 2024, down from 138 reported hate crimes in 2023.
- Louisiana: 71 reported hate crimes in 2024, up from 52 reported hate crimes in 2023.
- Mississippi: Eight reported hate crimes in 2024, down from 17 reported hate crimes in 2023.
All crime reporting to the FBI is voluntary, which can result in incomplete and inadequate records due to lack of will or training, insufficient community trust in police and language access challenges.
The SPLC proposes these five policy recommendations to promote community safety:
- Improve hate crime reporting: Congress should enact H.R. 2588, bipartisan legislation that would compel large law enforcement agencies (those serving jurisdictions with over 100,000 people) to report credible hate crime numbers to the FBI when receiving federal funding.
- Fund prevention methods:
- The Department of Justice must restore funding for the 56 hate crime training and prevention programs that it summarily terminated in April.
- The administration must fund additional prevention resources to accompany federal and state funding devoted to increasing security and protecting houses of worship.
- Federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services, should establish and fund programs to build community resilience against hate, inoculate against extremism, and empower adults to steer young people away from violent extremism. The SPLC’s work with American University’s Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab, or PERIL , provides a model on how to take a public health approach to preventing the radicalization of youth.
- Speak out against hate and extremism and promote inclusive responses to hate and extremism: Federal and state officials must support a coordinated and holistic approach that includes action and education to prevent and respond to all forms of discrimination, hate and extremism. This should include providing support services for those directly targeted and impacted by bias-motivated harms.
- Combat Misinformation: Federal and state lawmakers must reject efforts to restrict teaching about racism and accurate American history — both the good and bad.
- Promote Online Safety:
- Consistent with the First Amendment and privacy considerations, the administration and Congress should adopt rules and regulations to ensure that tech companies increase accountability and transparency and comply with civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination.
- Congress and state legislatures should provide incentives for tech companies to create and enforce policies and terms of service that prevent hate and extremism from flourishing on their platforms unchecked.
The full FBI 2024 HCSA Report can be found here.
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About the Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center is a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of all people. For more information, visit www.splcenter.org.