What is hate? How does hate show up in American society? How do people combat hate? The answers to these questions receive enormous debate on a consistent basis. The best way to find answers of your own is to explore the information that is available on the topic. The following three websites provide statistics and other information that relate to hate groups and hate crimes. These sites are not, by far, a representation of all of the information that is available. However, these sites may serve as good starting points for your research.

 

According to this website, “Combating hate crimes is one of the Department of Justice’s highest priorities. In this effort to fight bias and hate, the DOJ created this website as a centralized portal for all its hate crimes resources for law enforcement, media, researchers, victims, advocacy groups, and other interested organizations and individuals.” The site includes facts and statistics, laws and policies, case examples, state specific information, and more.

 

The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program collects data related to hate crimes. “For more than two decades, thousands of city, county, college and university, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies have voluntarily submitted data to the UCR Hate Crime Statistics Program on crimes motivated by prejudice based on race, gender and gender identity, religion, disability, sexual orientations, or ethnicity.” The Hate Crime Statistics website provides information about the type of information collected, and it provides links to annual reports and statistics documentation.

 

Each year, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) publishes an annual census of hate groups within the United States. The Hate Map, a result of monitoring by analysts and researchers, details the locations of those hate groups. In 2020, the SPLC tracked 838 hate groups across the U.S.  The website where the Hate Map can be found links to additional related information, including frequently asked questions about hate groups.

 

The Online Library (a database collection) of the Lucille Stewart Beeson Law Library is a good place to continue your research on this topic.  For assistance locating and using any of the resources within the law library, please email us at lawref@samford.edu.