Hate Crimes Investigations Fall, Convictions Rise: BJS

The number of suspects in hate crime matters investigated by U.S. attorneys declined between 2005 and 2019, although the conviction rate for hate crimes increased, according to a bulletin released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) Thursdy.

According to data from BJS Federal Justice Statistics Program, 1,864 hate crime suspects were referred for prosecution to U.S. attorneys from federal judicial districts in all 50 states between 2005 and 2019, though crimes investigated by U.S. attorneys’ offices declined 8 percent, from 647 between 2005 and 2009 to 597 between 2015 and 2019.

Throughout these periods, the conviction rate for hate crimes climbed, increasing from 83 percent between 2005 and 2009 to 94 percent between 2015 and 2019.

Of the 597 hate crime suspects in matters opened by U.S. attorneys during the five-year period between 2015 and 2019, 48 percent were investigated for violations of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HCPA) of 2009. In comparison, 22 percent were investigated for other offenses, 12 percent for violations of federally protected activities, 11 percent for damage to religious property and 7 percent for fair housing violations.

HCPA prohibits willfully harming someone “because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin of any person, [or] the actual or perceived religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of any person.”

About 85 percent of defendants convicted of a hate crime were sentenced to prison, with an average term of over 7.5 years. The likelihood of receiving a prison sentence varied by the type of hate crime at conviction. The likelihood of receiving a prison sentence was greatest for defendants convicted of HCPA violations at 96 percent and lowest for defendants convicted of damage to religious property at 63 percent.

In cases where hate crime matters were declined, insufficient evidence was the most commonly cited reason. The second most-common reason was the prioritization of federal resources, followed by the suspect being subject to the authority of another jurisdiction and the federal government lacking legal jurisdiction to file charges.

“Between 2005-09 and 2015-19, the share of declinations due to insufficient evidence rose from 49 percent to 63 percent, while the share due to a policy of the DOJ or U.S. attorneys’ offices fell from 16 percent to 7 percent,” the report reads.

But for the hate crime defendants adjudicated in U.S. district court between 2005 and 2019, nine in ten were convicted. During the 15-year period, all but ten states saw at least one hate crime conviction, with forty percent of the 284 hate crime convictions between 2005 and 2019 occurring in federal judicial districts in six states: New York (30), California (26), Texas (19), Arkansas (15), Tennessee (13), and Pennsylvania (12).

The average prison sentence in all hate crime convictions doubled between 2005 through 2009 and 2015 through 2019, from 62 to 125 months.

“Hate Crime Prevention Act charges received the longest prison sentences and exceeded federally protected activities charges in number,” the report reads.

To access the bulletin, click here.

This summary was prepared by TCR Justice Reporting intern Eva Herskowitz