Beginning in 2013, law enforcement agencies reporting hates crimes will be able to get even more specific when reporting bias motivation.
For example, the new bias categories of gender and gender identity—which added four new bias types—were added to the FBI’s hate crime data collection as a result of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Other bias types were modified to comply with the race and ethnicity designations specified by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. Data submitted under these new specifications will be part of the UCR program’s new system, scheduled to go online next year. (The 2013 crime data will be published in 2014).
“Hate crimes continue to be the highest priority of the Bureau’s civil rights program because of their heinous nature and their impact on victims and communities,” the agency said in a statement released yesterday. “We investigate hate crimes that fall under federal jurisdiction, assist state and local authorities during their own investigations, and in some cases—with the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division—monitor developing situations to determine if federal action is appropriate.”
In addition to responding to hate crimes, the agency says it is also taking a proactive approach to hate crimes overall.
“We’re integrating a cadre of analysts with our experienced investigators to not only establish a national threat picture but to identify risk factors that can be used by FBI field offices to assess the potential for hate crimes at the local level.”
The FBI also hopes to increase awareness of these crimes by establishing liaisons with civic and religious leaders and credible community organizations.
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