"LAMBDA Gay & Lesbian Ant-Violence Project
(AVP)
TO REPORT A HATE CRIME, CLICK
HERE.
What is a
hate crime
?
Depending upon where you live, a hate crime is a criminal
act which is motivated, at least in part, because of someone's bias or hatred of
a person's or group's perceived race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation,
or other characteristic.
When a crime is a "hate crime",
the victim is intentionally selected because of
his or her race, color, religion, national origin, gender, disability, or sexual
orientation. A number of federal and state laws prohibit acts or threats of
violence, as well as harassment and discrimination, based on race, color,
religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender and/or disability.
Some laws also include political
affiliation, and age, though federal and state laws vary greatly.
A crime
is classified as bias-motivated (or a hate crime) when it is clear that the
offender's criminal actions were motivated, in whole or in part, by
bias.
LAMBDA GLBT Community Services takes
hate crimes and other anti-GLBT incidents very seriously. LAMBDA works together
with law enforcement, judicial, and victim services agencies to eliminate and
respond to such incidents.
Reporting hate-related incidents and
domestic violence helps survivors take advantage of recovery services and
enables our community to build up statistics and patterns of crime, providing an
opportunity of catching offenders or prevent the violence altogether. Hate crime
statutes are designed to send the message that hate-motivated crimes, because
they are often attempts to silence and instill fear into entire groups, will not
be tolerated.
More...
click
here
Why should I report
hate incidents?
When such incidents are invisible, it is harder to protect
against them. Careful documentation and statistics are very important tools in
fighting such op