- A hate crime is a criminal act against a person or property motivated by the perpetrator’s bias against a particular group of people on the basis of race, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, age, or disability.
- Things the perpetrator says or does during the crime, such as the use of racial or religious epithets; symbols the perpetrator uses; and other contextual factors serve as evidence of the perpetrator’s motive. However, name-calling and the display of offensive symbols, no matter how vile, are not in-and-of-themselves criminal; in fact, such acts of expression are protected by the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech.