Hate crimes have occurred throughout history and across countries; they include psychological intimidation and physical persecution and punishment of one group by another. Current European definitions of hate crimes focus on the ethnic minority status of the victim, but do not address the situation of non- ethnic hate crimes. Measurement of hate crimes is difficult; the statistics should be reviewed with skepticism. The United States and Germany share similar problems identifying the parameters of hate crime and investigating it, but the countries differ in their legal approaches in that the German constitution bans neo-Nazi political activity, while the United States constitution protects it. Legislative efforts to punish hate-motivated offenses have produced little success in either country. However, social programs have been established in both countries to address the issue of prevention through education. Footnotes and 62 references