Sign Up for email alerts



About Hate Crimes

"Matt is no longer with us today because the men who killed him learned to hate. Somehow and somewhere they received the message that the lives of gay people are not as worthy of respect, dignity and honor as the lives of other people."
– Judy Shepard, HRCF board member and mother of Matthew Shepard, slain University of Wyoming student

Bias Motivated Violent Crime Affects an Entire Community

A hate crime occurs when the perpetrator of the crime intentionally selects the victim because of who the victim is.  While violent hate crimes are a widespread and serious problem in our nation, it is not the frequency or number of violent hate crimes alone, that distinguish these acts of violence from other types of crime.  While a random act of violence against any individual is always a tragic event, violent crimes based on prejudice have a much stronger impact because the motive behind the crime is to terrorize an entire community, and sometimes the nation.  For example, a 2006 Harris Interactive poll found that 64 percent of gays and lesbians are concerned about being the victim of a bias-motivated crime.

Bias Motivated Violent Crime is a Pervasive Community Problem

Evidence indicates that hate crimes are underreported; however, statistics show that since 1991 over 100,000 hate crime offenses have been reported to the FBI, with 7,722 reported in 2006, the FBI’s most recent reporting period. 


Violent crimes based on race-related bias were by far the most common, representing 51.8 percent of all offenses for 2006.  Violent crimes based on religion represented 18.9 percent and ethnicity/national origin, 12.7 percent.  Violent crimes based on sexual orientation constituted 15.5 percent of all hate crimes in 2006, with 1,195 reported for the year.  The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP), a non-profit organization that tracks bias incidents against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, reported 1,393 incidents for 2006 from only 13 jurisdictions, compared to the 2,105 agencies reporting to the FBI in 2006.

Legislative Status of the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act

The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (H.R. 1592) was introduced in the House on March 20, 2007, by Representative John Conyers (D-MI) and Representative Mark Kirk (D-IL) with 171 bi-partisan co-sponsors.  On May 3, 2007, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act was approved by the House as a stand-alone bill by a bi-partisan vote of 237 to 180, with 25 Republicans voting yes.


The Senate version, the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (S. 1105), was introduced on April 12, 2007, by Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Gordon Smith (R-OR) with 40 bi-partisan co-sponsors.  Senator Kennedy and Senator Smith filed the Matthew Shepard Act as an amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization bill (H.R. 1585).  On September 27, 2007, the Senate voted 60-39 for cloture which closed debate on the amendment.  The Matthew Shepard Act was adopted by voice vote and added to the Department of Defense (DoD) Authorization bill.

The hate crimes provision was not included in the final version of the DoD bill.  The provision fell victim to House opponents of hate crimes legislation as well as unrelated concerns regarding Iraq-related provisions of the bill.  The hate crimes veto threat issued by the White House and organized opposition by House Republican Leadership cost significant numbers of votes on the right.  Iraq-related provisions that many progressive Democrats opposed cost votes on the left.  Moderate Democrats, many of whom voted for the hate crimes bill in May, did not want to test the President’s veto threat and risk a delay in increased pay for military personnel.  All of these factors resulted in insufficient votes to secure passage of the bill with the hate crimes provision.

To find out more about the bill, read the Human Rights Campaign’s Questions and Answers About the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

View an Online Photo Exhibit: "Hate Kills"
 

Additional Information and Resources