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Hate crimes against people with disabilities remain steady

November 24th, 2009

Last month President Obama signed the expanded hate crimes legislation.  The law made it a federal offense to commit a crime against a person based on their disability.  Under this new law, hate crime protection extends to crimes committed based on a person’s sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability in addition to color, race, religion and national origin.

The expansion of the hate crimes legislation brings to light that the number of hate crimes committed against people based on disability has remained steady throughout 2008.

In 2008, the FBI’s Uniform crime Reporting Program stated that of the 9,691 victims of hate crimes, 1% or 85, were targeted based on disability.  Fifty seven were targeted because of mental disability and 28 because of physical disability.

The number of people targeted for hate crimes because of their disability has increased slightly, from 84, since 2007.