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11 Facts About Hate Crimes

Hate crimes are any crime where bias, prejudice, or bigotry is a motivating factor.
6,222 hate crime incidents involving 7,254 offenses were reported in 2011.
Out of 6,216 crimes reported:
- 47 percent were racially motivated
- 21 percent resulted from sexual-orientation bias
- 20 percent were motivated by religious bias
- 12 percent stemmed from ethnicity/national origin bias
- Less than 1 percent (0.9 percent) was prompted by disability bias
Every hour in the United States somebody commits a hate crime.
At least eight black people, three white people, three gay people, three Jewish people, and one Latino person become hate crime victims every day.
Half of all the hate crimes in the nation are committed by people between the ages of 15 and 24.
The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 gives the FBI authority to investigate violent hate crimes, including violence directed at the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community.
Hate crimes stem from a learned behavior of hatred because inherent hate for a whole group of people for no particular reason other than one's own bias is not something people are born with.
Every week somewhere a cross is burned.
41 states and the District of Columbia have laws against hate-crimes.
Hate crimes can have a psychological effect not only on the person being directly affected but the targeted group as well.