A hate crime is when a certain person or group participate in criminal activities targeting a certain religion, sexual preference, race etc. based on their biased opinions. These incidents can include physical assault, damage to property, harassment, verbal abuse, graffiti or letters and much more.

Hate crime laws have been created to end bias criminal acts. This act is very different from other laws involving hate speeches. Hate crime laws enhance penalties while speech laws criminalize a category of speech.