A bill requiring the Federal Bureau of Investigation to collect data on crimes motivated by racial, religious or ethnic prejudice was unanimously approved by the House Judiciary Subcommittee of Criminal Justice last Thursday. The Hate-Crime Statistic Act would require the Attorney General to issue an annual report summarizing the data on such crimes starting with the year 1986.
“It will give us a better picture of the extent” of such crimes, said David Brody, Washington representative of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith. He said it would also help “to focus public attention” on the situation.
Originally, a bill was introduced to collect this data as part of the FBI’s annual uniform crime report. But at a hearing of the subcommittee on March 21, the Justice Department cited technical difficulties in doing this.
The ADL at the hearing then suggested that the hate information could be collected outside of this reporting system. All sides agreed, and the bill was changed to the one approved Thursday.
Brody said the ADL would continue to collect information on anti-Semitic incidents for its annual report for 1985. But he said he was uncertain whether the ADL would issue annual reports after this year since the Justice Department report would be more extensive. (By David Friedman)
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