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Hate Crimes

Fact Sheet: Justice Department Efforts to Combat Hate Crimes

Preventing and prosecuting hate crimes is a top priority for the Justice Department. Hate crimes instill fear across communities and undermine our democracy. In one of his first acts, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland issued a directive to the Department to conduct a 30-day expedited internal review to determine how the Department could deploy all the tools at its disposal to counter the recent rise in hate crimes and hate incidents.

On May 27, 2021, following the review’s completion and the passage of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act and Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act, the Attorney General issued a memorandum announcing immediate steps to deter hate crimes and bias-related incidents, address them when they occur, support victims, and reduce the pernicious effects these incidents have on our society. Since then, the Department has aggressively implemented the Attorney General’s directives to increase resources to combat hate crimes through federal law enforcement action and to enhance training, support and outreach to state and local partners. 

Combating Hate by Investigating and Prosecuting Hate Crimes

  • Pursuing Hate Crimes Prosecutions: Since January 2021, charged 115 defendants in over 105 cases and secured more than 95 convictions of defendants charged with bias-motivated crimes.
  • Elevating Hate Crimes Threat Level: Elevating civil rights violations and hate crimes enforcement for prioritization among the FBI’s 56 field offices.
  • Expediting Review of Hate Crimes: Designating the chief of the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division to serve as a facilitator for the expedited review of hate crimes.
  • Enhancing State and Local Law Enforcement Training: Launching a hate crimes recognition and reporting training aimed at line-level state and local law enforcement officers and holding trainings for state and local law enforcement on assessing and managing hate crime and domestic extremist violence threats. This training is provided for free to state, local, tribal, territorial, and campus law enforcement agencies via the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services technical assistance program: https://cops.usdoj.gov/cri-tac.

Improving Hate Crimes Reporting

  • Increasing Hate Crimes Reporting: Launching the United Against Hate program in all 94 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices to help improve the reporting of hate crimes and hate incidents by teaching community members how to identify, report, and help prevent hate crimes and encouraging trust building between law enforcement and communities. The Department has held more than 300 events and over 10,000 people have participated.
  • Helping Agencies Report Accurate Hate Crimes Data: Providing funding and free technical support to assist law enforcement agencies transition from the old crime data collection system to the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), the only way for state and local agencies to submit crime data, including hate crime data, to the FBI. Conducting outreach to police chiefs, law enforcement groups, and mayors to emphasize the importance of accurate hate crime data collection.
  • Engaging State and Local Law Enforcement: Facilitating FBI-hosted regional conferences across the country with state and local law enforcement agencies and community organizations regarding federal civil rights and hate crimes laws to encourage reporting, strengthen relationships between law enforcement and local civil rights organizations, and build trust within the diverse communities they serve.
  • Expanding Language Access: Designating an inaugural Language Access Coordinator to improve knowledge, use, and expansion of the department’s language resources and adopting an updated Language Access Plan.
  • Increasing Language Access for Reporting Hate Crimes: Adding information to the department’s website on reporting hate crimes in 24 languages, including 18 of the most frequently spoken AAPI languages in the United States.
  • Conducting an Awareness Campaign: Launching an FBI-led National Anti-Hate Crimes Campaign involving all 56 FBI field offices to encourage reporting. The campaign includes outdoor advertising, billboards, and radio streaming in addition to social media.

Shoring Up Resources to Combat Hate Crimes

  • Coordinating Hate Crimes Resources: Designating a Deputy Associate Attorney General as the Department’s Anti-Hate Crimes Resources Coordinator.
  • Designating Hate Crimes Coordinators: Designating Assistant U.S. Attorney Civil Rights Coordinators in every U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO).
  • Strengthening USAO Access to Online Hate Crimes Enforcement and Prevention Resources: Creating an Online Toolkit for Combating Hate Crimes and Incidents, a one-stop shop providing USAOs with a comprehensive set of online prosecutorial resources. The Toolkit strengthens USAOs’ ability to lead hate crimes prevention efforts, providing them with customizable community outreach materials, including for the United Against Hate program, as well as technical assistance and grant information to share with community and law enforcement stakeholders.
  • Conducting and Disseminating Research: Conducting new research and evaluation studies and disseminating findings to improve hate crime prevention efforts; improve reporting of hate crimes and hate incidents; and understand and address the needs of victims of hate crimes and their communities.
  • Awarding Grants: Awarding over $70 million in grant funding over the last three years to law enforcement and prosecution agencies, community-based organizations, and civil rights groups to support outreach, investigations, prosecutions, community awareness and preparedness, reporting, hotlines, and victim services; as well as supporting research and program evaluation studies. Examples include:
    • The Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act Program, which supports state-run hate crime reporting hotlines and assists jurisdictions’ transition to NIBRS to improve hate crimes data reporting; and
    • The Emmett Till Program, which supports law enforcement and prosecutors and their partners in their efforts to investigate and resolve cold-case homicides that involve civil rights violations.

Educating the Public and Law Enforcement on How to Protect Our Communities

  • Strengthening the Community Relations Service: Revitalizing the Community Relations Service by, among other things, facilitating Protecting Places of Worship forums to provide interfaith communities with resources and information on securing their places of worship and help faith leaders build relationships with law enforcement.
  • Hosting a Virtual Hate Crime Forum: Sharing information and resources with the public in a virtual hate crime forum on Department efforts to combat hate crimes and incidents and highlighting the successful launch of the nationwide United Against Hate Program. The forum included reflections from leaders of civil rights organizations on increased threats against Jewish, Muslim, and Arab communities across the country.
  • Raising Awareness of the Rise in Hate Crimes During COVID-19 Pandemic: Publishing guidance with the Department of Health and Human Services to raise awareness of the rise in hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic, including a surge of hate crimes and hate incidents against Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities, and share tips for law enforcement, government officials, and community-based organizations to prevent and respond to hate crimes.
  • Combating Juvenile Hate Crimes and Identity-based Bullying: Conducting a multi-prong initiative to prevent and combat youth hate crimes, hate incidents, radicalization of youth by extremist hate groups, and identity-based bullying, including virtual symposiums, a webinar series, literature review, 19 youth roundtable discussions that identified ways to engage and empower youth to combat and prevent hate, and the development of additional resources to be released later this year.
  • Clarifying the Use of Byrne JAG grants: Sending guidance to State Administrating Agencies to clarify that Byrne JAG grants can be used to increase patrols and deployments that bolster the security of at-risk nonprofit organizations, including synagogues, churches, mosques, and other places of worship.

More information about the Department’s response to hate crimes is available at https://www.justice.gov/hatecrimes.

Updated March 8, 2024