Diversity, Crime And Prejudice Case Study Report Submission Form

The diversity issue focused on in this paper will be racial disparity in sentencing. This paper will also focus on some of the reasons why racial disparity exists within sentencing. One of the research methods used in this paper will be case studies. In society today there are a diversity of citizens, of offenders, and leaders within in the court system. However, race still plays a big role in the Criminal Justice system especially during the sentencing portion. Although racial dynamics may have changed over time, race still exerts an undeniable presence in sentencing process. This ranges from disparate traffic stops due to racial profiling to imposition of the death penalty based on the race of

The existence of racial disparity and structural inequality within the criminal justice system renders the concept of true justice for all unobtainable. The statistics of convictions and prison sentences by race definitely support the concept that discrimination is a problem in the justice system as well as the insignificantly number of minority judges and lawyers. There are a multitude of circumstances that influence these statistics according to the “Central Eight” criminogenic risk factors. The need for programs and methods to effectively deter those at risk individuals has never been greater and the lack of such programs is costing society in countless ways.

Hate crime is one of the biggest issues many people face today. Whether or not they should be legislated against has been highly debated and continues to be a hot topic. This essay will explain the ideas and opinions of several authors including Charley Reese, Michael Lieberman, Helen Dodge, Gregory S. Parks, Shayne E. Jones and Samuel Francis. It will also elaborate on the topic of why hate crimes should be legislated against, with supporting information.

3). These findings stated that 92 percent were offences that the police found to be motivated by hate, and eight percent of the offences fell into the specific categories in the criminal code (p. 4) This report showed that the top three categories for motivation for the hate crimes, in order, were: race/ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation (p. 5). In terms of race, black individuals were the most common victims of hates crime (p. 14). The religion that faced the highest amount of hate crime against them was Judaism. Lastly, for sexual orientation the most common victims were 25 years of age and below and males. Along with these facts, this report also established that for race and religion the highest number of offenders were in the age category of “under 18”. The highest number of offenders for the sexual orientation category were from 45 to 54 years old (p. 13).

     Hate Crimes are becoming more and more common in the United States. In a report released February 13, 2001, the FBI said 7,876 hate crimes were reported in the United State in 1999. The latest figures represent an increase over the 7,755 hate crimes reported in 1998, but the difference may not be significant because more agencies were reporting such crimes to the FBI in 1999. The figures are in the FBI’s Hate Crime Statistics, an annual publication. Seventeen people were murdered in incidents classified as hate crimes, compared to 13 in 1998. Of the total the 7,876 incidents, racial bias was associated with 54.5 percent of the cases, followed by religious bias at 17.9 percent, sexual bias at 16.7, percent ethnic bias at 10.5 percent and bias against the disabled at .24 percent. Intimidation was the most frequently reported hate crime, accounting for 35.1 percent of the total. Vandalism accounted

Hate Crimes Prevention Act also provides authorities with a better picture of the prevalence of hate crimes by requiring local authorities to include hate crimes committed because of sexuality, gender, gender identity, and disability to the reports on local hate crimes that they send in to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Before the HCPA, hate crimes were already too prevalent in the United States, and the addition of these new classifications of hate crimes only added to the amount of hate crimes committed, giving the government and U.S. citizens a greater awareness of this problem. For example, of the 6,573 hate crimes committed in 2012, the top three motivations behind these acts were race (47.2 percent), religion (20.2 percent), and sexual orientation (19.7 percent) (“Hate Violence,”

In many cities throughout the United States, hate crimes are on the rise. A hate crime is a "traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias. For the purposes of collecting statistics, Congress has defined 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, ethnic origin or sexual orientation'" (FBI, 2012). Hate crimes have increased as the national conversation has grown less tolerant. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that hate crimes against Latinos, Muslims, and homosexuals have seemingly increased in recent years. However, whether hate crimes are actually on the rise is something that is debated; the upswing in reported hate crimes may be due to an actual increase in crime rates, but it could also be due to an increase in reporting.

“The term hate crime was coined in the 1980s by journalists and policy advocates who were attempting to describe a series of incidents directed at Jews, Asians and African-Americans. The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines hate crime (also known as bias crime) as "a criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender 's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin.(National Institute of justice, Paragraph 1, December 22, 2010.)”

Hate crimes can be described as criminal activities that are perceived to be fueled by prejudice against and hostility towards the victim based on an individual characteristic. In most cases, hate crimes are motivated by gender, disability, sexual orientation, race, identity, and religion or faith. The increase in hate crimes in the recent past has not only made it a major issue that needs to be addressed in the modern society but has also attracted several legislative measures to deal with it. However, dealing with this major societal issue not only requires these legislative measures but also necessitate creative and critical thinking to enhance the effectiveness of initiatives taken to address it.

The key legislation against racial hate crime in E&W is the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (Iganski, 2008). The legislation requires courts to enhance sentence penalties of racially aggravated offences, beyond sentences required for non-racial equivalents (ibid). This act for enhanced sentencing requires two tests to be applied in order to prove ‘hostility’ (Mason, 2014, cited in Hall et al, 2014). The first test assesses motivation, whilst the second requires evidence that an offender ‘demonstrated’ racial or religious hostility before, during or after an offence (ibid). This evidence is usually provided within manifestation of verbal or written communication being submitted before a court (ibid).

One would love to believe the idea that we live in a world where we are. All the things that make each of us unique such as our ethnicity or even our lifestyle preferences, are things that should be seen and respected whether agreed with or not. Unfortunately, that is not the world we live in today. The world we live in is filled with misunderstanding and disrespect of lifestyles that some cannot understand or choose to disapprove of. Often times when individuals do not understand another person’s lifestyle, it causes anger. The anger is strong enough for one to want to do harm to a person or group of people. This is what I call a hate crime. The reasoning I chose this social problem is for the fact that hate crimes have been going on for many years, and now it seems as if it has became an even bigger problem generally because this behavior is happening more frequently than before and difficult to prevent. Hate crimes is one of the main reasons individuals are afraid to be themselves because they are getting harmed just for being unique in their own way. In 2009 President Obama signed a law that would make hate crime a federal crime to assault an individual because of their race or sexual preference or gender identity.

Referring to the FBI’s data in 2013, it reveals that about 48.5% of all reports that were classified as hate crimes were motivated by race (Brunker par.9). Racial attacks usually involve intimidation, vandalism, and assault to the opposite race (Crime Museum par.4). However according to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports the average amount of hate crimes between races has declined progressively (Brunker par.15). Unfortunately, hate groups are still a huge problem in today’s society, but the government is reacting in a more serious matter against these events

Carrying on from hate crimes / hate incidents, it has been noted that seemingly one of the biggest problems associated with hate crimes is commonly referred to as the ‘dark figure’ of crime. Much of the crimes that take place are not recorded as often as one might presume, likely because in the vast majority of cases the police will be unable to pursue the case beyond an initial warning to both of the parties, or record as a ‘hate incident’ rather than a hate crime, let alone lay charges or refer the case to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for prosecution as observed by (Burney & Rose, 2002; Gadd 2009).

One of the types of crimes that have caused a considerable amount of damage are hate crimes. The U.S. Congress defines a hate crime as a crime where the victim is targeted because of his or her race, color, nationality, ethnicity, gender, disability or sexual orientation. Some scholars believe a better term is bias crime, because many crimes that are motivated by hate are related to prejudice against any racial or ethnic group (Hate 1).

Throughout American history, violent criminal acts against a specific person or a group of individuals were just that, violent crimes. In the 1980’s, the term hate crime was born. The National Institute for Justice states the term “hate crime” was used by a group of advocates to describe a series of violent incidents targeting several minorities. A hate crime is “a criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender 's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin” (Nij.gov, 2010). In the United States, hate crimes are being reported on the daily basis. According to