Hate crimes on the rise in Missouri, Arkansas

JONESBORO, Ark. – Hate crimes appear to be on the rise in many areas of the nation and the states of Missouri and Arkansas are no different.

According to Missouri’s numbers from 2020, 53 hate crimes were against black or African-American residents, 12 were anti-white, nine anti-gay (male,) five anti-Islamic and four were anti-lesbian.

Of the 115, reported, 57 were simple assaults, 34 were intimidation 28 aggravated assault, 26 vandalism and three were weapons law violations.

In Arkansas, reports of hate crimes quadrupled between 2019 when 4 were reported to 2021 when there were 42.

A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership or perceived membership of a certain social group or racial demographic

The numbers are based on the 280 agencies that voluntarily gave the FBI their statistics.