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Hate Crimes

The kinds of criminal acts that qualify as hate crimes include threats, intimidation, violence against a person, or destruction of property, which itself may include cross burnings, institutional vandalism, criminal mischief, and trespassing. With that noted, definitions and scope of hate crimes differ from source to source and have evolved as hate crime legislation has evolved. Likewise, hate crime definitions have evolved in response to cultural movements (such as civil rights, women's rights), and high-profile cases (such as the killings of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr.).

Originally developed to combat anti-Semitism, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) drafted model legislation that sought to address all hate crimes, including “race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or [as of a 1996 amendment] gender of another individual or group of individuals.” The model also criminalizes institutional vandalism “aimed at houses of worship, cemeteries, schools, and community centers.” The legislation outlines a civil action clause aimed at the offenders as well as the payment of punitive damages to victims. It also requires that state police and other law enforcement agencies “establish and maintain a central repository” of information, records, and statistics regarding bias-motivated crimes and provide hate crime training to officers, especially in identifying, responding to, and reporting such crimes. Finally, the legislation provides a penalty-enhancement clause, which increases a convicted offender's sentence when there is proof of bias or prejudicial motivation.

In 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act. This act increased the power of the U.S. Department of Justice by extending its jurisdiction in the investigation and prosecution of hate-motivated violence. The act also increased the number of grants allotted to state and local communities that train agents in the criminal justice system in the management, investigation, and prosecution of bias-motivated crime. As of 2011, 45 states and the District of Columbia have laws against bias-motivated violence and intimidation.

Hate Crime Statistics

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) most recent report from the 2010 calendar year represented a total of 14,977 participating agencies in hate crime reporting. The agencies reported a total of 6,624 single-bias hate crime incidents, involving 7,690 offenses, 8,199 victims, and 6,001 offenders. Most offenses reported were crimes against persons (62.7 percent). Crimes against property represented 37 percent of the total offenses and the remainder included crimes against society. The most common crime committed against persons was intimidation (46.2 percent), followed by simple assault (34.8 percent) and aggravated assault (18.4 percent). There were seven murders/non-negligent homicides and four forcible rapes. Among the 8,208 victims, 48.1 percent were victims of racial bias, 18.9 percent were victims of religious bias, 18.7 percent were victims of sexual-orientation bias, and less than 1 percent were victims of a disability bias.

The FBI also provides information about the offenders. White offenders accounted for 58 percent of all offenders, while 18.4 percent were described as black. Offenders were more often motivated by a racial bias (48.4 percent) than by biases of sexual-orientation (19.1 percent), religion (18.3 percent), ethnicity/national origin (13.5 percent), or disability (0.6 percent). Of the racial-bias offenses, 69.8 percent were antiblack, while 18.2 percent and 5.1 percent were antiwhite and anti-Asian/Pacific Islander, respectively. The religious-bias crimes consisted of 65.4 percent anti-Jewish and 13.2 percent anti-Islamic. Anti-Catholic, Protestant, atheism/agnosticism and other all fell below 10 percent of the religion-motivated victims. Among the sexual-orientation-bias crimes, 57.9 percent were antimale homosexual bias, 27.4 percent were antihomosexual bias, and 11.4 percent were antifemale homosexual bias.

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