Shay Bilchik, Administrator .

Fact Sheet #29 August  1995

Hate Crime 
Eric Bishop and Jeff Slowikowski

Hate crime, also known as bias crime, has been
defined by the Department of Justice.s Community
Relations Service (CRS) 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.  

In 1990, Congress enacted the Hate Crimes
Statistics Act, mandating the Attorney General to 
collect data on the numbers of crimes committed
annually in the United States that are motivated
by hate.  The Attorney General has directed the
Federal Bureau of Investigation.s (FBI) Uniform
Crime Reporting Program to conduct the data
collection and issue an annual report.  The FBI
reported 7,587 bias motivated criminal incidents
with 8,987 offenses and 9,372 victims for the year
1993.   The FBI notes that hate crimes are not
distinct offenses, but rather traditional crimes
motivated by  bias.

The Nature of Hate Crime

In 1993, intimidation accounted for 34% of the
8,987 reported offenses with destruction of
property or vandalism accounting for 26%, followed
by simple assaults at 20%, and aggravated assaults
at 16% (Table 1).  There were 16 murders and 17
rapes reported in 1993 that were motivated by
hate.  In these offenses, the most common
motivation was race (64.4%), followed by religion
(15.1%), sexual orientation (11.1%) and
ethnicity/national origin (9.4%) (Table 2).

TABLE 1.  Hate and Bias Incidents, Offenses,
Victims and Known Offenders by Category in 1993.

                           Incidents  Offenses
                    Total  7,587      8,987    
Offense Category
Person Crimes:             4,981      6,293
  Murder                      11         16
  Forcible Rape               13         15
  Assault
    Aggravated             1,044      1,452
    Simple                 1,462      1,754
  Intimidation             2,451      3,056

Property Crimes:           2,580      2,666
  Robbery                    157        161
  Burglary                    84         88
  Larceny-theft               55         61
  Auto Theft                   9          9
  Arson                       53         53
  Vandalism                2,222      2,294

Other:                        26         28

TABLE 1 continued
                                      Known
                           Victims    Offenders
                    Total  9,372      8,610
Offense Category    
Person Crimes:             6,293      7,051
  Murder                      16         22
  Forcible Rape               15         17
  Assault
    Aggravated             1,452      2,395
    Simple                 1,754      2,491
  Intimidation             3,056      2,126

Property Crimes:
  Robbery                    202        378
  Burglary                   104         38
  Larceny-theft               71         48
  Auto Theft                   9          9
  Arson                       61         36
  Vandalism                2,604      1,011

Other:                        28         39

Source:  Hate Crime Statistics 1993, Federal
Bureau of Investigation
Note:  An incident is a single event recorded by
law enforcement.  Each incident can have multiple
offenses and multiple offenders.

The Victims of Hate Crime 

There were 9,372 victims of hate crimes in 1993.
Of this number, 85% were individuals with the
remaining 15% being businesses, organizations, or
other  property.  Table 2 shows that within the
Race category, blacks  were the victims of 59.2%
of the crimes committed, while whites were the
victims in 30.8% of the crimes. In the
Ethnicity/National Origin category, 71.8% of the
hate crimes were committed against Hispanics. In
the Religion category,  the majority of the
victims were of the Jewish faith (87.9%).  Within
the Sexual Orientation category,   68.6% of the
victims were  male homosexuals and 14.7% were
female homosexuals.

TABLE 2.  Hate Crime Incidents, Offenses, Victims
and Known Offenders by Bias Motivation, 1993.

                              Incidents  Offenses
                        Total   7,587      8,987
Bias Motivation
Race:                           4,732      5,786
  Anti-White                    1,471      1,814
  Anti-Black                    2,815      3,410
  Anti-American Indian/            27         39
       Alaskan Native
  Anti-Asian/Pacific              258        297
       Islander
  Anti-Multi-Racial               161        226

Ethnicity/National                697        845
Origin:
  Anti-Hispanic                   472        596
  Anti-Other Ethnicity            225        249

Religion:                       1,298      1,358
  Anti-Jewish                   1,143      1,197
  Anti-Catholic                    32         33
  Anti-Protestant                  30         30
  Anti-Islamic                     13         15
  Anti-Other Religion              63         66
  Anti-Multi-Religious             14         14
  Anti-Atheism/                     3          3
       Agnosticism/etc.

Sexual Orientation:               860        998
Homosexual
  Anti-Male                       615        699
  Anti-Female                     121        147
  Anti-Homosexual                  94        122 
  Anti-Heterosexual                28         28
  Anti-Bisexual                     2          2

TABLE 2 continued

                                         Known
                              Victims    Offenders
                        Total   9,372      8,610
Bias Motivation                 
Race:                           6,011      6,258
  Anti-White                    1,853      2,890
  Anti-Black                    3,559      2,845
  Anti-American Indian/            43         49
       Alaskan Native 
  Anti-Asian/Pacific              316        291
       Islander
  Anti-Multi-Racial               240        183

Ethnicity/National                895        814
Origin:
  Anti-Hispanic                   643        653
  Anti-Other Ethnicity            252        161

Religion:                       1,423        461
  Anti-Jewish                   1,252        371
  Anti-Catholic                    33         16
  Anti-Protestant                  38         13
  Anti-Islamic                     15         11
  Anti-Other Religion              68         21
  Anti-Multi-Religious             14         26
  Anti-Atheism/                     3          3
       Agnosticism/etc.

Sexual Orientation:             1,043      1,077   
Homosexual
  Anti-Male                       716        834
  Anti-Female                     154        106
  Anti-Homosexual                 143        110
  Anti-Heterosexual                28         26
  Anti-Bisexual                     2          1

Source:  Hate Crime Statistics 1993, Federal
Bureau of Investigation
Note:  An incident is a single event recorded by
law enforcement.  Each incident can have multiple
offenses and multiple offenders.

Hate Crime Data Collection
Current data on juvenile involvement in the
perpetration of  hate  crimes is limited.
Victimization information is not available.  No
empirical data identified the extent or impact of
hate crimes on juveniles.  The FBI's Uniform Crime
Reports - Hate Crime Statistics for 1993  does not
specify the age of the offender.  The FBI.s new
data collection system, The National Incident
Based Reporting System (NIBRS), will be more
specific as to exact demographics, including the
age of both the victim and offender, but is still
several years away from  implementation.  Another
common source for crime data, the Bureau of
Justice Statistics' (BJS) National Crime
Victimization Survey (NCVS) , does not identify
motives for  the crimes reported. It also contains
no information with regard to the offender.  

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention's Role in Hate Crime
The Administrator of the Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), in
accordance with sections 248(b)(7)(A) and
261(a)(9) of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention Act of 1974, as amended,  has initiated
two projects on hate crimes involving juveniles. 
The projects, The Juvenile Hate Crime Study and
Hate Crime Prevention: A Juvenile Justice
Approach, were initially funded in 1993.

Juvenile Hate Crime Study

The Juvenile Hate Crime Study, conducted by West
Virginia University's Dr. Richard Ball and David
Curry, is a  research project designed to
standardize the complex issues in defining  hate
crimes.  It is also studying the quality and
availability of statistics pertaining to the
involvement of juveniles, either as offenders or
victims, in hate crimes.  Preliminary findings 
indicate that only six states, and seven major
cities within those states, maintain crime related
data that specifies the age of the offender in
hate crimes.  

The data reviewed from the six states revealed a
wide variance in the percentage of hate crimes
that can be attributed to juveniles (8.5% to
62.6%).  A juvenile is defined as a person under
the age of 18.  In the seven major cities, 
juveniles  were identified as the offender in a
hate crime in 8.3% to 42.9% of the offenses.  From
the data reviewed in these states and cities, it
can be extrapolated by using robust statistical
techniques that an estimated 17% to 26% of all
hate crimes incidents recorded by law enforcement
can be attributed to juveniles.

Under the OJJDP study, some correlates between
juveniles and  hate crime involvement have been
identified. There appears to be a correlation
between involvement in hate crime offending and
gang-related crime.  This is most notable with 
skinhead gangs and similar hate groups.  These
areas are identified by the project as needing
further study.

A 1988 Abt Associates study of hate crime
estimated that half of the individuals arrested
for hate crimes are adolescents and young adults
between  16 and 25  years of age (Finn, P. And
McNeil, T., 1988).  In comparison,  the FBI
Uniform Crime Reports reported that only 35% of
all arrests in 1993 were adolescents and young
adults between 16-24 years of age.

Juvenile Hate Crime Prevention

The second project, Hate Crime Prevention: A
Juvenile Justice Approach, is being conducted by
the Education Development Center, Inc., (EDC). 
EDC's goals are to assist the field in the
implementation of programs to prevent hate crime
and to build awareness in the field of education
and criminal justice to prevent hate crimes. These
goals will be accomplished by developing, pilot
testing and disseminating a hate crime prevention
curriculum. At present, EDC has completed an 
assessment of the relevant literature and existing
curricula and  surveyed experts in the field.  EDC
also established an advisory board of national
experts in the areas of juvenile justice,
education, hate crime research, and victim
assistance to advise and assist in the development
of the curriculum.  This developmental effort 
resulted in the production of a summary report of 
existing programs and a draft educational
curriculum for juveniles.

The EDC curriculum is divided into three different
sections: 1) Introduction and Implementation
Guidelines; 2)  Where we are now: Understanding
and Preventing Hate Crime  and Incidents; and 3) 
How it begins: Understanding the Roots of Hate.
The educational curriculum is designed to prevent
hate crime and offer guidance to juveniles who
commit hate crimes.  It consists of 10 forty
minute units.   Each unit contains a lesson plan
that includes student learning objectives,
preparation instructions, teaching points,
activities, handouts,  lesson goals  and purposes. 

EDC's curriculum was  pilot tested at the Collins
Middle School in Salem, Massachusetts this past
year.  EDC is currently reviewing and evaluating
curriculum implementation. Once the evaluation is
completed, the curriculum will undergo a
redesign and be tested in two more sites to
assure the efficacy of the program.  If
successful, it will be made available for national
replication.

The products developed from this OJJDP project are
expected to have substantial impact on the
juvenile justice agencies and hate crime
prevention organizations that currently utilize
training mechanisms but do not have the time,
research, or expertise to develop curriculum 
materials on hate crime.

References:

Ball, Richard A. and David Curry. (1995).
Hate/Bias Crimes and Juveniles: A National
Assessment. Draft Report submitted to The Office
of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention,
Department of Justice. 

Federal Bureau of Investigation. (1993). Hate
Crime Statistics 1993. Uniform Crime Reports.

Finn, P. and T. McNeil. (1988). Bias Crime and
Criminal Justice Response: A Summary Report
Prepared for the National Criminal Justice
Association. Cambridge, MA: Abt Associates, Inc.

McLaughlin, K. and Kelly Brilliant. (1994). Hate
Crime Prevention: A Juvenile Justice Approach. 
Educational Development Center, Inc. Draft
Assessment Report Summary submitted to the Office
of Juvenile Justice and  Delinquency Prevention,
Department of Justice.

This Fact Sheet was prepared by Eric Bishop,
Intern, and Jeff Slowikowski, Program Specialist,
both with OJJDP's Research and Program Development
Division. For further information on hate crimes,
please call  Jeff Slowikowski at (202) 307-5929.

FS-9529