Abstract This chapter summarizes the problems with measuring the prevalence
and severity hate crimes in the United States that are delineated in greater detail in
later chapters. The chapter explains the various types of contemporary hate crime
legislation with a focus on their similarities and differences and ramifications for
accurately measuring the prevalence of hate crimes. The chapter examines federal
and state variations in statutory provisions with particular emphasis on differences
in statutorily protected bias groups and evidentiary criteria. This chapter focuses in
some detail on evidentiary criteria including discriminatory selection, animus,
“because of” and “by reason of” evidentiary standards. The chapter also summarizes
landmark supreme court decisions that have set the legal parameters for the
promulgation of federal and state hate crime statutes within the constitutional constraints
of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. This chapter concludes with a
discussion of the importance of accurate measurement as it relates to enacting
evidence-based
policies and practices that serve the most vulnerable and likely victims
of hate crimes.