The Indiana Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has released its report, Rethinking Hate Crime Policy in Indiana examining the state’s recent efforts to address hate crimes through data collection, enforcement and prosecutions, and training on how to identify a hate crime.
The Committee gathered testimony from subject-matter experts and stakeholders, including researchers, academics, advocates, government officials, and impacted individuals, through a series of public briefings conducted between the Summer and Fall of 2024. The Committee determined that Indiana’s 2019 hate crime law is rarely invoked which raises concern about the gap between statutory intent and practical application; includes vague language that lacks explicit protections for gender; and causes uncertainty in the application of the law for other protected classes. Additionally, existing hate crime data does not accurately reflect the reality of bias-related acts in the state.