Federal Initiatives in the Fight Against Hate Crimes
The Federal Government has an essential leadership role in confronting
criminal activity motivated by prejudice and in promoting prejudice-reduction
initiatives for schools and the community. The following elements
are basic to that leadership role.
- The Hate Crime Statistics Act
- Five Years of HCSA Data: Progress and Promise
- The Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act
- The Church Arson Prevention Act
- The Violence Against Women Act
- Bigotry in the Armed Forces
- The Department of Education: Promoting Anti-Bias' Programs
The Hate Crime Statistics Act (HCSA - Public Law 102-275)
Enacted in 1990, the HCSA requires the Justice Department to acquire
data on crimes that "manifest prejudice based on race, religion,
sexual orientation, or ethnicity" from law enforcement agencies
across the country and to publish an annual summary of the findings.
In the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (Public
Law 103-322), Congress expanded coverage of the HCSA to require
FBI reporting on crimes based on disability.
As of September 1996, the FBI had held 76 hate crime training
conferences across the country, training nearly 4,400 law enforcement
personnel from 1,200 state and local agencies. ADL and other groups
with expertise in analyzing and responding to hate violence have
participated in a number of these training seminars on how to
identify, report, and respond to hate crimes.
Five Years of HCSA Data: Progress and Promise
Unlike the League's Audit, which includes noncriminal incidents
of harassment and intimidation, the data collected under the HCSA
includes only criminal activity. The FBI documented a total of 4,558 hate crimes in 1991, reported from 2,771 police departments
in 32 states. The Bureau's 1992 data documented 7,442 hate
crime incidents reported from more than twice as many agencies,
6,181-representing 42 states and the District of Columbia. For
1993, the FBI reported 7,587 hate crimes from 6,865 agencies
in 47 states and DC. The FBI's 1994 statistics documented 5,932 hate crimes, reported by 7,356 law enforcement agencies from 43
states and DC.
The FBI's 1995 HCSA report documented 7,947 crimes reported
by 9,584 agencies from 45 states and DC. About 61 percent of the
reported hate crimes were race-based, with 16 percent committed
against individuals on the basis of their religion, 10 percent
on the basis of ethnicity, and 13 percent against Gay men and
Lesbians. The 1,058 crimes against Jews and Jewish institutions comprised more than 13 percent of the total--and 83 percent
of the reported hate crimes based on religion. Approximately 38
percent of the reported crimes were anti-Black, 15 percent of
the crimes were anti-white, 4.5 percent of the crimes were anti-Asian,
and 6.5 percent anti-Hispanic.
The Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act
This measure, enacted into law as Section 280003 of the 1994 crime
bill, directed the United States Sentencing Commission to provide
a sentencing enhancement of "not less than three offense
levels for offenses that the finder of fact at trial determines
beyond a reasonable doubt are hate crimes." The provision
defined a hate crime as "a crime in which the defendant intentionally
selects a victim, or in the case
of a property crime, the property that is the object of the crime,
because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national
origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of
any person." In May 1995, the United States Sentencing Commission
announced its implementation of a three-level increase in its
sentencing guidelines for hate crimes.
The Church Arson Prevention
Act (Public Law 104-155)
According to Justice Department
officials, from January 1, 1995, to January 7, 1997, DOJ opened
328 investigations of suspicious fires, bombings and attempted
bombings; 143 suspects have been arrested in connection with 107
fires, with 48 convictions in connection with fires at 43 houses
of worship. One hundred and thirty-eight of the 328 investigated
attacks have been directed against houses of worship that are
predominately African-American institutions. One hundred and forty-three
persons have been arrested for these crimes, including
24 African-Americans; 62 of the alleged perpetrators have been
juveniles.
The Church Arson Prevention Act,
unanimously enacted into law in duly 1996, broadened existing
Federal criminal jurisdiction and facilitated criminal prosecutions
for attacks against houses of worship. It increased penalties
for these crimes, established a loan guarantee recovery fund for
rebuilding, and authorized additional investigatory personnel
for the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI, as
well as Justice Department prosecutors, and personnel from the
Justice Department's Community Relations Service to "investigate,
prevent and respond" to these incidents. Recognizing that
data collection efforts complement criminal prosecutions of hate
crime offenders, Congress included a continuing mandate for the HCSA.
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)
Enacted as Title IV of the 1994
crime bill, VAWA declares that "All persons within the United
States shall have the right to be free from crimes of violence
motivated by gender." The law provides authority for domestic
violence and rape crisis centers and for education and training
programs for law enforcement and prosecutors. Importantly, VAWA
provides for victims of gender-based crimes to bring a civil suit,
in either Federal or state court, for money damages or injunctive
relief.
Bigotry in the Armed Forces
The murder of two African-Americans
in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in December 1995, allegedly by
two white soldiers stationed at nearby Fort Bragg who were involved
in neo-Nazi skinhead activities, highlights the danger posed by
even small numbers of extremists in the military. In the wake
of these murders, the Army established a Task Force on Extremist
Activities, which conducted extensive interviews and surveys of
thousands of soldiers and released its report in March 1996.
The report found minimal evidence
of extremist activity in the Army. Yet, even if organized hate
group members in the military are few in number (as they are in
general society), the access they have to weapons and explosives,
and the training they receive, make them a potentially significant
threat to society. In addition, the presence of haters and extremists
in the military poses a threat to morale and good order in the
ranks.
The response of the Armed Forces
to hate group organizing was the subject of important hearings
any before the House National Security Committee on June 25, 1996.
Representatives from the Pentagon and the three service branches
described efforts they are making to address this issue. In a
significant follow-up, Congress included a requirement in the
FY 1997 Defense Department Authorization bill that each service
branch conduct "ongoing programs for human relations training
for all members of the Armed Forces" and required the Department
of Defense to conduct an annual survey to measure the state of
racial, ethnic and gender discrimination-as well as the extent
of hate group activity-and to prepare a report to Congress.
The Department of Education: Promoting Anti-Bias' Programs
In 1992, for the first time, Congress
incorporated anti-prejudice initiatives into the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the principal Federal funding
mechanism for the public schools. Title IV of the Act, Safe and
Drug-Free Schools and Communities, also included a hate crimes
prevention initiative-promoting curriculum development and "professional
training and development for teachers and administrators on the
cause, effects and resolutions of hate crimes or hate-based conflicts."
In a significant step forward in
efforts to institutionalize prejudice reduction as a component
of violence prevention programming, in July 1996, the Department
of Education announced the availability of up to $2 million in
new grants to fund the development and implementation of "innovative,
effective strategies for preventing and reducing the incidence
of crimes and conflicts motivated by hate in localities directly
affected by hate crimes."
Source: Anti-Defamation League
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