Hate Crime Categories

To assist your hate data collection, we have listed some hate crime categories:

ARSONS: sometimes perpetrators set fires in or bomb synagogues, churches, homes or organizational office; autos are frequent targets. These events are often accompanied by racist graffiti.

ASSAULT: altercations involve beatings, hitting, slapping, torture and often are paired with racial homophobic or religious insults or attacks with weapons.

CROSS BURNINGS: cross burnings refer to those lit to intimidate victims and usually occur in front of homes or offices of organizations.

HARASSMENT: this category includes threats or verbal insults by mail, phone, e-mail or in person. It can involved bumping or shoving, displaying arms, banging on doors, death threats, etc.

HATE GROUPS: this includes reports of meetings and activities of such groups as the ku klux klan, local militias, skinheads, etc. Many groups are local and many have names that are not nationally known, so again, please watch carefully; for example, there was the Good 'O Boys Roundup (a racist picnic of federal agents in the hills of Tennessee.)

HATE SPEECH: look for speeches and pronouncements by individuals or groups that perpetuate hate. First Amendments rights are at issue here but we would like to know what kind of statements are being made in your community that are meant to derail diversity and democracy. These can be subtle, so one really has to pay attention.

SHOOTINGS: this involves actually wounding victims or shots fired into homes, churches or meeting places as well as gunshots used to intimidate victims.

VANDALISM: these are property crimes and often involve trashing or defacing offices, homes, schools, autos, windows of stores, statues or churches, temples, and mosques. Looting, graffiti, spray painting insults or warnings, and smashed windows are common. These often occur when a family of color moves into a home on a 'white' street or in a 'white' neighborhood.

MURDER: some targets are actually killed. They are shot, stabbed, lynched or beaten to death.

Please send articles and/or reports to the Women's Division, General Board of Global Ministries, Attn: Ministries in the Midst of Hate & Violence, The United Methodist Church, 475 Riverside Drive, Rm 1502, NY, NY 10115-0050.

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!