HATE CRIME FACTS

• According to the 1997 FBI Uniform Crime Report, there were 8,049 hate crime incidents reported to the FBI.

• African-Americans are the most frequent targets of hate crime, by a factor of three to one. Homosexuals are the next group most frequently attacked, followed closely by whites and Jews. ("Hate Crime Statistics 1997," U.S. Department of Justice, FBI, Criminal Justice Information Services Division.)

• A large number of hate crime perpetrators are youthful thrill-seekers -- 60 percent of offenders committed crimes for the thrill associated with the victimization. The second most common perpetrator is the reactive offender who feels that he is answering an attack by his victim. The least common is the hard-core fanatic who is driven by racial or religious ideology or ethnic bigotry and is often a member of, or a potential recruit for an extremist organization. (1993 Northeastern University study.)

• Whites committed 4,523 or 63 percent of the reported hate crimes; 19 percent of the perpetrators were African-American. ("Hate Crime Statistics 1997," U.S. Department of Justice, FBI, Criminal Justice Information Services Division.)

• As of 1999, there are a total of 11 states which do not have any kind of hate crime laws -- South Carolina, Hawaii, Wyoming, New York, Kentucky, Rhode Island, New Mexico, Kansas, Arkansas, Georgia and Indiana. (Anti-Defamation League Web page; www.adl.org)