Does Connecticut have a hate crimes law?
Yes, Connecticut has two different types of hate crimes laws. In order to track hate crimes, the State maintains a reporting system so that incidents alleged are centrally recorded.89 The State has also set out a sliding scale of penalties for hate crimes based on actual or perceived race, religion, ethnicity and sexual orientation depending on their severity. See “An Act Concerning Intimidation Based on Bigotry or Bias”90 How does the law define what is a hate crime? Before the law of “intimidation based on bigotry or bias” can be applied to any crime, it must be shown that the attacker acted (1) maliciously and (2) with specific intent (i.e., the attacker specifically chose to attack the person because of their personal characteristics of sexual orientation, etc.). If those prerequisites are shown, the crime takes several forms. 1. Intimidation based on bigotry or bias is a Class C Felony when, in addition to the prerequisites above, the attacker “causes serious physical injury” to a
