Last week, the Florida Attorney General’s Office released the 2020 Hate Crimes in Florida Report.
The report includes detailed information on the types of hate crimes being reported throughout the state to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement under the Uniform Crime Reporting information system.
Hate crimes are senseless, criminal acts based on hatred and bias towards individuals or groups because of race, religion, sexual orientation or other personal characteristics. According to the report, 127 hate crimes were reported statewide from Jan. 1, through Dec. 31, 2020.
That is a slight decrease from the 2019 report, which found 134 hate crimes.
In 1989, the Florida Legislature passed laws designed to address the issue of hate crimes. Section 775.085, Florida Statutes, was created to increase penalties for convictions of crimes where there was evidence of certain prejudice. Additionally, the Hate Crimes Reporting Act, Section 877.19, Florida Statutes, was passed to require law enforcement agencies to report hate crimes to the FDLE and required the Attorney General’s Office to publish an annual summary of data collected by FDLE.
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