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Hate Crimes and the Workplace

Unfortunately, FBI statistics show that the number of hate crimes or bias crimes in the United States remains alarmingly high. A great number of these may occur at work or be connected to the workplace in some way. In the workplace, personality conflicts, horseplay, bullying and resentment between and among supervisors, employees and co-workers may fester and escalate into threats and sometimes even acts of violence. Customers, clients, vendors or third parties may also bring violence into the workplace. The FBI defines a hate crime as a criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender or gender identity.

To protect the workplace and employees, it is critical for an employer to understand the steps to minimize the risk of a hate crime and how to respond if a hate crime occurs.

Below are some key tools and resources to help an employer prevent and address hate crimes in the workplace.