Data shows ‘accelerated’ rise in anti-Asian violent attacks

Despite increased national attention and political action on hate incidents against Asian Americans, the violence is continuing to increase around the country and experts say more needs to be done to prevent it. On Thursday, the organization Stop AAPI Hate – founded last year in response to increased targeting of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders during the pandemic – said it has received reports of more than 6,600 hate incidents between its inception and March 31. That is a drastic increase from March, when the group reported nearly 3,800 hate incidents.

There was a more than 164% increase in anti-Asian hate crime reports to police in the first quarter of 2021 in 16 major cities and jurisdictions compared to last year, according to another recent report from the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

The new data come after several recent high-profile attacks. On Tuesday, a man was arrested for allegedly stabbing two Asian women in an unprovoked attack in San Francisco. Over the weekend, two Asian women were attacked in New York City by a woman who demanded they remove their masks and then struck one of them in the head with a hammer, according to police.

These assaults are just the latest in a series of brutal crimes against Asians and Asian Americans, including the fatal shootings of eight people in Atlanta, including six women of Asian descent, that shed light on the sharp increase in violence. The uptick began in March 2020 as COVID-19 began spreading across the country and some politicians, including former President Donald Trump, blamed China for the pandemic.

Since then, lawmakers have advanced legislation, police departments have created task forces and hotlines, and community members have organized demonstrations and neighborhood watch programs.

But the brutal attacks continue.

“It’s not going to be likely to decrease any time soon unless we are very vigilant about it,” said Van C. Tran, an associate professor of sociology who studies the experience of Asian Americans at The Graduate Center, CUNY.

Last month, the Senate passed legislation aimed at fighting the rise in hate crimes against members of the AAPI community with overwhelming bipartisan support. If the House passes the law, it will be a “very strong first step,” but more structural changes are needed to eradicate the racist attitudes underlying these crimes, said Tran.

Shortly after taking office, President Joe Biden signed an executive action condemning racism and intolerance against Asian Americans, and he has since repeatedly expressed concern about the violence including during his first prime-time address to the nation in March.

Biden’s change in tone from the previous administration “probably” helped, but political rhetoric alone is not enough to quash the rise, according to Brian Levin, the author of the CSUSB report and a professor of criminal justice.

“Even with President Biden and Congress making admirable efforts, there’s still a subculture that is vulnerable to either a shallow level of prejudice or a very deep level of prejudice,” he said. “Even people with low, shallow prejudices can act violently based on situational factors.”

Levin, who has been tracking hate incidents for nearly three decades, said the rise in anti-Asian hate crime reports may get worse as the COVID-19 restrictions lift around the country. He said while some of the increase may be attributed to increased reporting

“We had a 146% increase in 2020 and that is now being accelerated and sustained,” he said. “This is a historic surge and it requires immediate action by civic leaders, educators and policy makers and law enforcement particularly in the area of outreach.”

Russell Jeung, the co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, said it’s hard to tell from his data whether hate incidents are occurring at a higher rate or if the community is reporting more incidents due to increased awareness and media attention. Either way, he agreed that as coronavirus restrictions lift “the possibilities for racist instances can increase” and the trend will likely continue.

“I think the racism is pretty deeply felt and anger directed towards Asian is still pretty high,” he said.

Although solving the issue requires a “whole society” approach, Levin said that the “most urgent” issues lie with law enforcement. Although part of the increase he’s observed may be due to increased reporting, there is still “massive underreporting” of hate incidents. Better data is needed to evaluate the scope of the problem. Fewer than half of the victims of a hate crime ever report it to the police, according to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

While Levin said some places like New York City, which created an Asian Hate Crimes Task Force, do a good job of counting these crimes in other places they fall through the cracks. He pointed to Alabama – the only state in the U.S. to report zero hate crimes in 2019.

“We really have to have concrete data collection,” he said. “If we’re getting delays — the FBI data comes out in midNovember — that’s not going to help the communities that are experiencing this now.”

The FBI collects national hate crime data, but data for 2020 and 2021 has not yet been released. Two hundred sixteen anti-Asian hate crimes were reported in 2019, according to the latest data available.

Levin suggested tying federal funding to data collection as a possible solution. He also pointed to a bill in California which would create a permanent commission tasked with creating a yearly comprehensive accounting of hate crime activity statewide and offering recommendations as a possible model. He also said police departments must do a better job of determining when a crime is a hate crime.

More needs to be done to educate the community about how to report hate incidents particularly if they don’t rise to the level of a crime and to connect victims with support resources, said Evangeline Chan, a co-chair of AAPI Affinity Group at Safe Horizon which provides support to crime victims. Chan, like many experts, said that there may be cultural or language barriers that prevent Asians and Asian Americans from reporting.

She said in New York City, where her organization is based, many community members don’t know they can report violations civilly to the NYC Commission on Human Rights or access mental and physical health resources even if they decide not to report.

“The attention that it’s been given has been great,” Chan said. “What we would like to see is really a little bit more of education, outreach and awareness centered around the resources that already are available.”

Part of that education should include teaching kids in K-12 and at the college level about the “integral role” of Asian Americans in American history, said Anne A. Cheng, a professor at Princeton University whose work focuses on race, gender and literature.

“It’s so clear that what the stake is not just racism but also xenophobia,” Cheng said. “We are part of this country we are part of its history we have contributed from the 19th century onward.”