mr. chairman , reclaiming my time , i thank the chairman for accepting the amendment . 
law enforcement agencies have identified 9 , 100 victims arising from 8 , 715 separate criminal offenses . 
fbi data has also revealed that a disproportionately high percentage of both the victims and the perpetrators of hate violence were children , young people under 18 years of age . 
the fbi 's annual hate crime statistics act report provides the best snapshot of the magnitude of the hate violence problem in america . 
however , there is a paucity of regularly published information about juvenile hate crime offenses because the statute does not require data analysis for gender or juvenile categories . 
this is an important omission , as indicated by a special doj report on the subject in 2001 . 
this report , which carefully analyzed nearly 3 , 000 of the 24 , 000 hate crimes to the fbi from 1997 to 1999 , revealed that a disproportionately high percentage of both the victims and the perpetrators of hate violence were young people under 18 years of age . 
for example : 30 percent of all victims of bias-motivated aggravated assaults and 34 percent of the victims of simple assault were under 18 . 
as we address legislation for the protection of children , we should utilize the full extent of federal resources and data collection plays an important role . 
i hope that this amend will find broad support so that we can work to eliminate hate violence directed against young people . 
