The FAQs: What You Should Know About Hate Crimes

A hate crime is a traditional criminal offense, such as murder, arson, or vandalism, with an added element of bias. For the purposes of collecting statistics, the FBI has defined a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” As the FBI notes, hate itself is not a crime, and not all actions that include elements of hate (such as hateful speech) are criminal offenses. Learn More