Hate-Associated Crimes

This paper will explore the long-term effects a hate crime has on the victim and his or her community. The victims and communities are directly and indirectly affected by the crime. Victims suffered long term effects such as negative mental and physical health, anxiety, depression, and symptoms of PTSD. The affected communities were victimized solely for sharing the same characteristics and beliefs of the victim. The long lasting effects of the hate crime influence every aspect of the victim’s life and those communities involved. Coping mechanisms such as support groups helped the victim and the communities regain some normality in their lives.

There’s a lot of hate crimes going on in the world today, It’s being highly debated as to whether or not hate crimes should be legislated against. “Hate Crimes” are referred to as criminal acts against a person, group, or property due to one’s race, religion, gender or sexual orientation. (Civil Rights-Hate Crimes-Overview), an individual who experiences a hate crime may be threatened, harassed, physically harmed, or killed.

Many issues impacted by hate crimes can be informed by psychological research. For example, are hate crimes more harmful than other kinds of crime? Why do people commit hate crimes? What can be done to prevent or lessen the impact of hate and bias-motivated crimes? Social scientific research is beginning to yield information on the nature of crimes committed because of real or perceived differences in race, religion, ethnicity or national origin, sexual orientation, disability, or gender. Current federal law defines hate crimes as any felony or crime of violence that manifests prejudice based on “race, color, religion, or national origin”. Hate crimes can be understood as criminal conduct motivated in whole or in part by a negative opinion or attitude toward a group of persons. Hate crimes involve a specific aspect of the victim’s identity. Hate crimes are not simply biases, they are dangerous actions motivated by biases.

Throughout history, crimes have been committed worldwide. Murder, assault, and other crimes have been dealt with some kind of punishment, but one crime stays unnoticed and not cared about. Hate crimes, a major conflict in communities, have been showing up without anyone noticing. People sometimes commit them unaware of the consequences due to the lack of understanding what a hate crime really is. A hate crime is a motive to hurt or insult a certain group of people. It is more harsh and dangerous than most crimes because it not only affects the victim, but the whole group of that victim’s characteristic. With the underestimation of hate crimes, murder, assault, and other crimes will increase highly.

Blacks were introduced to American soil during the 17th and 18th centuries via the triangular trade route, and were welcomed by whips, chains, shackles, and all the horrors of slavery. Slavery was legitimized by our government and continued for a few hundred years, taking a civil war and sixteen presidents before it was abolished. To this day, there is still much hatred between blacks and whites despite emancipation, desegregation, and integration; some would argue that the condition of African Americans in the United States is still one of a subservient nature. Federal law defines a hate crime as whenever a victim is attacked on the basis of his or her race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or

There are several laws that have been put in place over the years about hate crimes. In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the first federal hate crime statute. This statute made it a crime to use, or threaten to use force willfully interfere with any persons because of race, color, religion, or national origin and because the person is participating in federally protected activity such as public, education, employment, jury service, travel, or the enjoyment of public accommodations, or helping another person do so (justice.gov, 2017). In 1968, another act was signed into law that made it a crime to interfere with housing rights because of someone 's race, color, religion, sex or national origin. (civil rights act

What is a hate crime? Although the definition can vary based on what groups are included (Cogan, 2006, p. 174) the simplest definition would be, violence against a person or group of people based on their gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, race or disability (Burgess, Regehr, & Roberts, 2013). Hate Crimes do not just effect the victim but also the community. Those who become victims of hate crime are not chosen at random, it is because of the group they identify with or belong too (Cogan, 2006, p. 174) Hate speech, “defined as words used as weapons to ambush, terrorize, wound, humiliate and degrade” (Burgess et al., 2013, p. 480) another person. Violence is seriously damaging to a victim and the community, but

If we keep ignoring the hate crimes happening in America today, the issue will only grow until hate crimes become the norm. What will happen then? Will America consume itself in an attempt to flourish its own citizens? America is a country founded on immigrants, built on diversity, and dependent on cooperation. If the building blocks we stand on are ripped out from beneath us, the only way to go is down. We need to focus on building new blocks and not ripping them out from other’s

Although the multicultural nature of American society enriches the lives of it’s citizens, the diversity of cultures and ethnic groups has unfortunately also evoked resentment and hatred among some individuals. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a hate crime is a criminal offense committed against members of a specific group by the offender’s bias against a race, religion, ethnic/ national origin group, religion, or sexual orientation group (FBI, 2004).

Recently, in a response to an increase in violence, the state of Wisconsin passes a law that enhances the penalty for any offense committed against a victim where the crime is committed because of hatred for the victim’s race, sex, or religion. Prior to discussing whether or not this penalty enhancement violates the civil jurisdiction given to the state from God; one must first provide the foundation of the jurisdiction of the state from the biblical principles. First, Christ recognizes that God has all authority “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God” Roman 13:1 (King James Online). In addition, Christ recognizes jurisdiction “and Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the

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).

Hate crimes are very common in today’s society, they can range from various ethnicities and orientations as well as the severity of the crime committed. A hate crime is defined as “the violence of intolerance and bigotry, intended to hurt and intimidate someone because of their race, ethnicity, national origin, religious, sexual orientation, or disability. The purveyors of hate use explosives, arson, weapons, vandalism, physical violence, and verbal threats of violence to instill fear in their victims, leaving them vulnerable to more attack and feeling alienated, helpless, suspicious and fearful”. These attacks are fueled by a hatred for the victim’s personal lifestyle. As mentioned above, hate crimes are not specific to one group of people, the crimes can be found in every aspect of society, some are just more obvious than others. In a 2014 study it was found that 51 percent of hate crimes were motivated by the victims ethnicity. Race was the second highest rate of motivation. According to this study, it has been determined that majority of hate crimes can be classified as “simple assaults”. In relation to these statistics it is estimated that only 4% of the assaults resulted in an arrest. It is also believed that more than 60% of hate crimes are not reported. These are not reported because the victims think that nothing will come out of reporting their attacks. Also, the actual victims reported only 22% of hate crimes, while someone else reported 12%. These types crimes

Hate crimes are a geographical problem and humans right challenge where varies of theories and officials address to change individual formulating methods of improvement on violators. The label of hate crime existed for centuries of inappropriate human behavior violating humanity such as violent acts historically and internationally. Across the global varies of countries view hate crimes on a balance of series of bias hurt either physically or verbally some don’t even acknowledge hate crime verbally and legislation process prosecuting violators tend to be practiced differently. In this paper the scope of how governments in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Europe, and Antisemitism define their methods amongst hate crime tracking, legislation, attacks, and protected groups.

The U.S. House of Representatives said that hate crimes are classified by what motivated the defendants behavior. Whether this be by hatred or prejudice based on actual or perceived race, nationality, or ethnicity of another person or group of people. Hate crimes can range from vandalism to homicide. These attacks are not always meant to harm the victim, sometimes they are carried out to instill fear into the targeted person or group of people. Therefore the victims of hate crimes are selected because of the aggressors prejudice against the group that the victim belongs to and not because the victim had provoked the aggressor in some way. In result hate crimes end up spreading fear through not only the victim, but also through people who identify

When someone hears the words “hate crime” they get a goosebumps type of feeling. Reason because the thought of committing a crime based on certain aspects that one might not agree with is seen as absurd. In the dictionary the word hate crime is defined as “a crime motivated by racial, sexual, or other prejudice, typically one involving violence.” This definition makes us think that why would anyone commit a crime based on those matter? Do they bother someone that much that someone is a different race, a different sexuality or even a different religion?