Chiaravalloti Bill to Require Reporting of Bias Intimidation to FBI, Improve Collection of Hate Crime Statistics Clears Committee

(TRENTON) – As hate crimes in New Jersey continue to rise, the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee voted Monday advancing legislation (A-863) that would require the New Jersey Attorney General to report bias intimidation offenses to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for inclusion in their annual report on hate crimes.

Sponsor of the bill, Assemblyman Nicholas Chiaravalloti (D-Hudson), released the following statement:

            “By requiring the Attorney General to add bias intimidation statistics to those currently reported to the FBI, this bill simply seeks to expand the pool of data available for analysis. In doing so, we hope to develop a clearer, more comprehensive picture of how deeply violence is permeating our communities.”

Under current New Jersey law, a person is guilty of a bias intimidation crime if they commit, attempt to commit, conspire with another to commit, or threaten the immediate commission of an offense intended to intimidate an individual or group of individuals because of race, color, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, or ethnicity.