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Hate Crimes

Hate crimes, or bias motivated crimes, occur when an individual targets a victim because of his or her membership in a certain social group. These social groups are typically defined by:

• Race
• Religion
• Sexual orientation
• Disability
• Ethnicity
• Nationality
• Gender

Hate crimes can take many forms, including:

• Physical assault
• Damage to property
• Bullying
• Harassment
• Verbal abuse or insults
• Offensive graffiti or letters

Hate crime is not a new idea. There are examples dating back to the Roman persecution of Christians, the Ottoman genocide of Armenians, and the Nazi genocide of Jews. Hate crimes have shaped world history. In the United States, racial and religious biases have inspired most hate crimes.

Anti-Black biases have been the most frequently reported hate crimes in the United States. Of the nearly 8,000 hate crimes reported to the FBI in 1995, nearly 3,000 were motivated by bias against African Americans. Other frequently reported bias motivations were anti-white, anti-Jewish, anti-gay, and anti-Hispanic.

Hate crime laws that have been enacted typically fall into one of four categories. The first category encompasses laws that define specific bias-motivated acts as distinct crimes. The second group allows for criminal penalty-enhancement laws. This means that a crime's penalty can be enhanced if it was hate motivated. The third category creates a distinct civil cause of action for hate crimes. The final group requires administrative agencies to collect hate crime statistics.

In the United States, forty-five states and the District of Columbia have enacted statutes that criminalize various types of hate crimes. Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia have enacted statutes that create a civil cause of action in addition to the criminal penalties for similar acts. Illinois has enacted statutes that have created civil and criminal penalties for hate crimes.

Contact a Chicago Hate Crime Lawyer

If you have been the victim of a hate crime, contact the Chicago hate crimes lawyers of Friedman & Bonebrake at 312-466-8200 to learn more about your legal rights.