Hate Crime

• NCJ Number: 247790
• Author(s): Eric Bishop; Jeff Slowikowski
• Date Published: August 1995
• Length: 2 pages
• Agencies: OJJDP
• Publication Type: Statistics; Legislation/Policy Description; Issue Overview

Annotation

After defining a hate crime under Federal law and presenting general statistics on hate crimes in the United States, this Fact Sheet examines the extent of juveniles' involvement in hate crimes and the efforts of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) in addressing this issue.

Abstract

The U.S. Justice Department's Community Relations Service has defined a "hate crime" as "a criminal offense committed against a person or property which is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender's bias against a race, religion, ethnic/national origin, or sexual orientation group." In1990, Congress enacted the Hate Crimes Statistics Act, mandating the Attorney General to collect data on the number of crimes committed annually in the United States that are motivated by hate. The FBI reported 7,587 bias-motivated criminal incidents involving 8,987 offenses and 9,372 victims for the year 1993. A table presents data on hate and bias incidents, offenses, victims, and known offenders by offense category for 1993. A second table presents the same data categorized by type of bias motivation. Data on the involvement of juveniles in perpetrating hate crimes is limited. OJJDP has initiated two projects on hate crimes that involve juveniles. The projects - The Juvenile Hate Crime Study and Hate Crime Prevention: A Juvenile Justice Approach - were initially funded in 1993. These projects are briefly described. 2 tables and 4 references