WHAT IS A HATE CRIME?

ANY COLORADAN CAN BECOME A VICTIM OF A HATE CRIME.

From state to state there are various definitions of what are called "hate crimes," "bias crimes" or crimes of "ethnic intimidation." Despite their differences, these laws recognize two things: 1) that no American should become a victim of a crime simply because of his or her skin color, religion, heritage, or other such characteristic; and 2) hate crimes impact the victim and community much more severely than other crimes. (Finding a spraypainted "Kilroy was here" on your garage is an annoyance; finding "Kill all ______s!!" on your garage is terrorizing, especially if you have children.)

CUAH.ORG uses Colorado's definition of hate crimes as a baseline (18-9-121 Ethnic Intimidation).  This includes race, color, ancestry, religion, and national origin as protected categories. If law enforcement agencies consider a crime a hate crime under this statute, so does CUAH.ORG.

There is overwhelming evidence that hate crimes are targeted beyond the groups mentioned under Colorado law, and experts say that the toleration of hate crimes against any identifiable group makes hate crimes more likely against all groups. 25 states now include gender, 23 include disability, 20 include sexual orientation, and 10 include age under their statutory schemes. While reasonable people may have differences about some of these laws, CUAH.ORG's mission is to support all Coloradans who are victims of crimes of hate, and to deter the commission of such crimes. CUAH.ORG  therefore also classifies as a hate crime any crime that, in our opinion, would be so classified under 18-9-121 if it included these other categories.