This Fact Sheet from the U.S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) describes the features of BJA grant programs and resources intended to improve the identification of and response to hate crimes.
BJA’s Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Program supports state, local, and tribal law enforcement and prosecution agencies and their partners in conducting outreach, educating practitioners and the public, improving victim reporting tools, and investigating and prosecuting hate crimes based on race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability. BJA’s Students, Teachers, and Officers Preventing School Violence Program (STOP) aims to improve school security by providing students and teachers with the tools to recognize, respond quickly to, and prevent acts of violence, including hate crimes. BJA’s Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program provides funding to support a range of criminal justice programming, including those that combat hate crimes. BJA’s Emmett Till Cold Case Investigations Program supports law enforcement and prosecutors in their efforts to resolve cold-case murders that involve civil rights violations. Resources for countering hate crimes are also given high priority by the U.S. Justice Department, which cooperates with state, local, and tribal partners in their efforts to counter hate crimes and bias-motivated violence. Contact information is provided for accessing BJA’s resources to counter hate crimes.