Matthew Shepard Act

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 ]

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