Hate Crime Statistics Act

The Hate Crime Statistics Act (HCSA) was the first piece of federal legislation that directly acknowledged hate crime. Enacted by Congress and signed into law by then President George H. W. Bush on April 23, 1990, the HCSA (Public Law 101–275) mandated the U.S. Attorney General to collect data and produce an annual summary of “crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice” as well as establish guidelines and procedures for the collection of such data. The act required the reporting of eight crimes as hate crimes when they demonstrated bias based on race, religion, ethnicity/nationality, or sexual orientation. The crimes were murder, forcible rape, aggravated and simple assault, intimidation, arson, and the destruction, damage, or vandalism of property. The Department of Justice was given the authority to expand this list and was assured appropriations for the first decade of the effort.

Implementation of the HCSA was delegated to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program. In 1991, the program issued the Training Guide for Hate Crime Data Collection and requested that law enforcement agencies report hate crime, defined as crimes motivated at least in part by the prejudices documented in the HCSA. Since 1993, information about hate crimes against person, property, and society have been collected and published, with an emphasis on those crimes identified in the initial legislation as well as robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. In 1994, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act amended the HSCA to include crimes manifesting prejudice based on physical or mental disability. Pending [Page 343]legislation recommends that the HCSA be expanded further to include gender and homelessness. The rest of this entry discusses the act's legislative history, goals and concerns, and results.