Hate Crimes and Death Threats

Hate crimes, also known as bias crimes, are crimes against people, property, or society that are motivated, in part, by a bias against real or perceived characteristics of the victims. Hate crimes include a wide array of criminal offenses, such as murder, death threats, church burning, theft, and vandalism. Statutory definitions of hate crimes vary in the number and victim characteristics specified, but generally include race, religion, and ethnicity/ national origin. Sometimes disability, sexual orientation, gender, transgender/gender identity, political affiliation, and age are included as protected classes, although whether to include some of these has been controversial at times. In some cases, hate crime legislation requires data collection, training for law enforcement personnel, and provisions for sentence enhancement for offenders. Hate crime legislation also allows for civil action. The criminal category of hate crimes has both supporters and opponents.

Although the legal category of hate crimes is relatively new, violence, death threats, and other crimes motivated by hatred of particular characteristics of the victims are not a recent phenomenon, nor are these actions limited to the United States. Jews, Tutsis in Rwanda, Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, immigrants and refugees in Sweden and Italy, civilian members of the Fur, Zaghawa, and Massaleit ethnic groups in Darfur, Aboriginal people in Australia, and Mormons are examples of groups that have been targets of violence because of their ethnicity, race, or religion.

Hate Crime Laws

Lynching, cross burning, death threats, intimidation, and other forms of violence against African Americans, most notably by the Ku Klux Klan, were so common after the Civil War that the federal government responded, in part, by passing the Civil Rights Act in 1871. Approximately 100 years later, the first federal law to specifically mention characteristics of the victims was passed because of the bias-motivated crimes that garnered national attention during the civil rights movement. This law granted federal authority to investigate and prosecute those who use force or threats of force to willfully injure, intimidate, or interfere with someone because of the victim's race, color, religion, or national origin when he or she was attempting to engage in federally protected activities, such as attending school, being employed, traveling, and securing lodging.

In the 1980s, groups that advocated hate against marginalized groups, particularly African Americans, gays, lesbians, and Jews, became more visible. The use of the term “hate crimes” became associated with some actions of organized hate groups, such as the Confederate Hammerskins (racist skinheads), [Page 553]League of the South (neo-Confederates), Americans for Self Determination (white nationalists), Victory Nights of the Ku Klux Klan, and White Revolution (neo-Nazis). Hate groups continue to proliferate. In 2007, the Southern Poverty Law Center identified 888 active organized hate groups, which is 48#x0025; more than in 2000.

In 1990, Congress passed the Hate Crime Statistics Act (HCSA) requiring the Attorney General to gather and make available to the public data about crimes motivated by prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. In 1992, the Uniform Crime Reports included data on hate crimes for the first time. Two years later, Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act that expanded the requirements of the HCSA to include hate crimes against people with disabilities.

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