FACTS

According to the 2005 U.S. Department of Justice/FBI Hate Crimes Report on Hate Crimes: • 54.7 percent were racially motivated. • 17.1 percent were motivated by religious bias. • 14.2 percent resulted from sexual-orientation bias. • 13.2 percent stemmed from ethnicity/national origin bias. • 0.7 percent were prompted by disability bias. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Special Report on Hate Crimes notes that 20% of all hate crimes are committed by youth under 18 years old

A 2006 report by The National Coalition for the Homeless shares that youth between the ages of 16 and 19 are committing an increasing number of Hate Crimes against homeless people.

Recently Reported Hate Crimes
(reported by Hatewatch weekly, part of the Intelligence Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center http://www.splcenter.org/intel/hatewatch/hatewatch.jsp)

September 24, 2007 - New Jersey
Posters bearing swastikas and neo-Nazi slogans were affixed to the front door of a synagogue as well as telephone poles in a heavily Jewish neighborhood at the end of the Jewish holy holiday.

May 29, 2007 - Stockton, California
"Racial slurs, a swastika and other graffiti were spray-painted on a residence."

May 25, 2007 - Temple City, California
"A black man was allegedly beaten and stabbed by three white youths at a fast-food restaurant. Christopher Mitcheltree, 18, and two teens, ages 16 and 17, were charged with suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon."

May 22, 2007 - Lynn Haven, Florida
Thomas E. Plaisted was charged with battery evidencing bias after he allegedly spit on a Muslim child and shoved another at a fast-food restaurant.

May 01, 2007 - Palm Harbor, Florida
"Colin Morrison, 19, and David Fishman, 18, were charged with felony criminal mischief for allegedly spray-painting racial and ethnic slurs on nine portable classrooms at a high school.

April 22, 2007 - Athens, Georgia
A swastika was drawn with shaving cream on the door of a Jewish student's dorm room.

Feb 04, 2007 - Rock Hill, South Carolina
John William Dunkle Jr. was charged with damage to property after he allegedly wrote racial slurs in red ink on a rest room wall at his high school.

January 20, 2007 - Durham, North Carolina
Michael Bates and Michael Robert Six, both 20, and Christopher Barnette, 19, were charged with assault and battery and ethnic intimidation after allegedly assaulting three Palestinian students while yelling ethnic slurs.