Definition of "hate crime" []

• A crime motivated by prejudice against a social group: "[His]murders were hate crimes targeting victims by gender” ( Jane Caputi and Diana E.H. Russell). (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Similar results have been reported by diffusion scholars (mainly general sociologists and political scientists) studying the spread of such innovations as hate crime laws (Grattet, Jenness, and Curry, 1998), state lotteries (Berry and Berry, 1990), and so forth through the American states."
• "An example is the diffusion of hate crime laws in the United States Grattet, Jenness, and Curry, 1998."