There is no room in our society for bigotry and prejudice. Help your police department prevent and prosecute hate crimes by reporting hate-motivated activity, particularly where it may involve criminal behavior. Don't wait until someone is harmed - Tell the police.
A hate crime is targeted criminal activity, usually motivated by prejudice based on perceived personal characteristics of the victims. These motivations may include race, religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. The FBI's guidelines, as to what constitutes a "hate crime" are included at the bottom of this page.
Not limited to individual activity, many organizations have been labeled as "hate groups" where their group objectives and activities promote prejudicial behavior and even organized criminal activity targeting groups of citizens.
FBI Guidelines
The FBI Hate/Bias Motivation Guidelines to law enforcement agencies for determining what constitutes a hate crime:
Because of the difficulty of ascertaining the offender's subjective motivation, bias is to be reported ONLY if the investigation reveals sufficient objective evidence of biased motivation to meet a probable cause type standard.
Bias is a preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of people based on race, religion, ethnic/national origin, sexual orientation, or disability.
Hate crime is a criminal offense committed against a person or property which is motivated by the offender's bias against race, religion ethnic/national origin, sexual orientation, or disability.
Must Have Objective Evidence That The Crime Is Motivated By Bias
An important distinction must be made. The mere fact that the offender is biased against the victim's race, religion, ethnic/national origin, sexual orientation, or disability, doesn't mean that a hate crime was involved. Rather, the offender's criminal act must have been motivated, in whole or part, by his/her bias.
Therefore, before an incident can be reported as a hate crime, sufficient objective facts must be present to meet a probable cause-type standard that the offender's actions were motivated, in whole or part, by bias. While no single factor may be conclusive, facts such as the following, particularly when combined, are support for a finding of bias.
The offender and the victim were of different race, religion, ethnic/national origin, sexual orientation, or disabled.
Bias-related oral comments, written statements, or gestures were made by the offender which indicated his/her bias.
Bias-related drawings, markings, symbols or graffiti were left at the crime scene.
Certain objects, items, or things, which indicated bias were used.
The victim is a member of a racial, religious, ethnic/national origin, sexual orientation group, or is disabled, who is overwhelmingly outnumbered by members of another group, or in the neighborhood where the victim lives and the offense took place. This factor loses significance with the passage of time.
The victim was visiting a neighborhood where previous hate crimes have been committed against other members of his/her race, religion, ethnic/national origin, sexual orientation group, or his disability, and where tensions remain high against his/her group.
Several incidents have occurred in the same locality, at or about the same time, and the victim(s) were all of the same racial, religious, ethnic/national origin, sexual orientation, or have disabilities.
A substantial portion of the community where the crime occurred perceives that the incident was motivated by bias.
The victim was engaged in activities promoting his/her racial, religious, ethnic/national origin, sexual orientation group, or those with disabilities.
The incident coincided with a holiday relating to, or a date of particular significance to a racial, religious, ethnic/national origin, sexual orientation group, or those with disabilities.
The offender was previously involved in a similar hate crime or is a member of a hate group.
There were indications that a hate group was involved.
A historically established animosity exists between the victim(s) group or the offender(s) group.
Last Updated: November 10, 2006
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