Over the past few years the nation has experienced an alarming number of disturbing and sometimes deadly hate crimes. The dragging death of African-American James Byrd, Jr., in Jasper, Texas; the deadly attack on Matthew Sheppard, a gay student in Laramie, Wyoming; the shooting rampage targeting minority citizens in Chicago; and the shootings of children at a Jewish community center in Los Angeles, California, followed by the murder of Joseph Santos Ileto, a Filipino-American mail carrier, have left a trail of dead or wounded victims and traumatized, fearful communities. During this time many other Americans have been the victims of far less publicized hate crimes motivated by their perpetrators' bias toward their perceived racial or ethnic identity, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, gender, or disability. These less well known hate crimes resulted in similar levels of injury and trauma to both the victims and the communities.
The nation has reacted to these hate crimes with energy and ingenuity. Responses include clear and strong condemnation from religious, civic, and governmental leaders; efforts to strengthen state and federal hate crime laws; innovative preventive programs in schools; and additional resources for training police officers and prosecutors.
Police officers generally are the first professionals responding to the scene of a hate crime. Their actions significantly affect the outcome of the criminal investigation as well as the community's response to the incident. Therefore, law enforcement agencies have a pivotal role in responding to, investigating, prosecuting, and preventing hate crimes. To successfully carry out their roles, police officers and prosecutors must receive training on recognizing and investigating potential hate crimes, have clear protocols on how to respond to hate violence, and develop innovative programs for preventing and responding to hate crimes.
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http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles1/bja/179559.txt
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