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Hate Crimes in Hawaii, 2002

NCJ Number
200356
Date Published
April 2003
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This document presents information on hate crimes in Hawaii for the year 2002.
Abstract
Hate crimes are crimes committed against a person based on hostility toward race, religion, disability, ethnicity, national origin, or sexual orientation. Hate crimes are not new types of offenses but are traditional offenses for which an offender’s motivation is based upon a bias against one or more of the protected groups. The process of determining whether or not a hate crime has occurred is often complicated and inherently subjective. One of the biggest challenges in making determinations for these otherwise routine cases is in allocating the investigative resources required to answer the question why the crime was committed. There are 14 characteristics that should be considered when determining whether or not an offense is a hate crime. There is no requirement as to certain key characteristics or the total number of characteristics that must be present in order for an offense to be, or not to be a hate crime. The characteristics include bias-related oral or written comments or drawings and symbols made by the offender; the victim is a member of a group that is outnumbered by other residents where the crime took place; the victim was engaged in activities promoting this group; the offender was previously involved in a similar hate crime; and a historically established animosity exists between the victim’s and the offender’s groups. Hawaii’s hate crime statistics reporting program is set at the prosecution level. This practice eliminates “false positives” and is based on incidents that meet the State’s legal definition of hate crimes. Two hate crimes were reported to the State in 2002. Both hate crimes occurred in the City and County of Honolulu during September 2002. What is interesting about these cases is that they could easily not be considered hate crimes, but rather as “hate-related crimes.” There are three other cases currently under investigation, and the extent to which a bias against race, homelessness, or some combination of both played a role in the attacks must be determined. 2 references