The Matthew Shepard Act, 18 U.S.C. § 249, also known as the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, was enacted to expand previous hate crime legislation and to provide more funding and resources to investigate and prosecute hate crimes.
See Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act for more information.
[Last updated in July of 2023 by the Wex Definitions Team]