ABSTRACT
Introduction A hate crime is a criminal offense committed against a person, persons, or property that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, national origin, or sexual orientation. This is a simple definition that contains the simple elements. But the crimes are anything but simple and the range of the crimes are immense. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) (2007) reports:
In 2007, 2,025 law enforcement agencies reported 7,624 hate crime incidents ◾ involving 9,006 offenses There were 7,621 single-bias incidents that involved 8,999 offenses, 9,527 ◾ victims, and 6,962 offenders The 3 multiple-bias incidents reported in 2007 involved 7 offenses, 8 victims, ◾ and 3 known offenders
As the FBI indicates, we cannot assume that all hate crimes are reported by the policing agencies across the United States. There are some agencies in law enforcement that do not report for a variety of reasons including one of public relations.
