Hate crimes hit record highs in nation’s largest cities
The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino has released a new report showing the nation’s 10 largest cities have seen an average increase of 22% in reported hate crimes. For a second year in a row, hate crimes have been increasing and that trend is continuing across the country.
Anti-Black hate crime remained the most frequent bias.
Even with the record increases in reporting numbers, estimates from the National Crime Victimization Survey suggest that 40 to 50% of all hate crimes go unreported to police.
Terminology
Hate: The term “hate” can be misleading. When used in a hate crime law, the word “hate” does not mean rage, anger, or general dislike. In this context “hate” means bias against people or groups with specific characteristics that are defined by the law.
At the federal level, hate crime laws include crimes committed on the basis of the victim’s perceived or actual race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability.
Most state hate crime laws include crimes committed on the basis of race, color, and religion; many also include crimes committed on the basis of sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and disability.
Crime: The “crime” in hate crime is often a violent crime, such as assault, murder, arson, vandalism, or threats to commit such crimes. It may also cover conspiring or asking another person to commit such crimes, even if the crime was never carried out.
Hate Crime: At the federal level, a crime motivated by bias against race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability.
Hate Incident: Acts of prejudice that are not crimes and do not involve violence, threats, or property damage. These include unlawful discrimination. The FBI does not track or report harassment as hate incidents because it has yet to create a category for tracking such data.
History
The first hate crime laws were passed after the American Civil War, beginning with the Civil Rights Act of 1871, in order to combat the growing number of racially motivated crimes which were being committed by the Reconstruction era—Ku Klux Klan.
Modern hate-crime legislation began when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 into law. This law made it illegal to “by force or by threat of force, injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone who is engaged in six specified protected activities, by reason of their race, color, religion, or national origin.” However, “The prosecution of such crimes must be certified by the U.S. attorney general.”