Students at a large Midwestern university who participated in an unrelated experimental study on person perception responded to various phrases about hate crimes. The samples consisted of 113 volunteers (61 women and 52 men), who responded to a sentence completion task designed to tap perceptions of the typicality of hate crimes, their victims, and their perpetrators. Two independent raters coded the responses of each of the participants for the presence or absence of various factors. The results show considerable variability in respondents' definitions of hate crimes, with perceptions of hate crimes differing with regard to the demographic characteristics of both victims and perceivers. Victims may experience hate crimes differently because of who they are, why they are victimized, and with whom they share their experiences. In a separate study, males and females each evaluated a scenario of a hate crime perpetrated upon a male or female victim. Whether or not the crime was described as motivated by racial or religious bigotry, heterosexism, or was ambiguous was systematically varied. The demographic status of the participant appeared to determine how disruptive they regarded the crime scenario, and the likelihood that they would report personal knowledge of a victim of a similar type of assault. None of the participants was likely to report knowledge of a victim of a heterosexist assault. Policy implications of results from both studies are discussed. 4 tables and 43 references