Brief History Of Hate Crimes Prevention Act Of 2009

Today, hate crimes are defined in the United States by the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 as “crimes that are committed due to the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin of any person” (US DoJ, 2023). While this most recent hate crime legislation was passed within the past two decades, hate crimes have been committed throughout the course of human history and there has been anti-hate crime legislation in the United States since the 1960’s. Early hate crime legislation only applied to victims who were participating in a limited number of federally protected activities, including attending school or voting. It was not until 2009 that legislation expanded hate crimes to include any victim of crimes committed due to the victim’s real or perceived membership of certain groups. There are numerous relevant factors

Anti-religious crimes are typically against property and include damage or vandalism, theft, or burglary. However, anti-race and anti-sexual orientation hate crimes tend to be committed against individuals (Cheng et al., 2013). This makes sense, as races and members of LGBTQ communities do not have their identities tied to physical locations in the same way religious organizations do. These communities certainly have places they congregate in or may feel freer to express these aspects of their personality, but a predominantly black community center is not integral to being black in the same way that a Synagogue is to being Jewish. Data on the targets of racial-motivated hate crimes also reveals interesting, if contradictory, patterns. Whites and Blacks are most likely to commit hate crimes against one another. Conversely, Asians and Asians are more likely to commit hate crimes against members of the same group. This makes sense in respect to Whites and Blacks when one considers Turner and Tajfel’s Social Identity Theory