Essay on Hate Crime Laws

A 2005 study conducted by National Institute of Justice, found that the Federal Government and all but one state, Wyoming, have laws related to hate crimes. A consistent problem identified by this study is there in no consistency in defining what constitutes a hate crime. (Carrie F. Mulford, Ph.D., & Michael Shively, Ph.D., Hate Crime in America: The Debate Continues, 257, Nat’l Inst Just., (2007). “The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines hate crime—also called 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.” ld.

While hate crime is a fairly new label for a crime, the existence of hate crimes has been present since the early days of the United States. Throughout US history, murders, assaults, and destruction of property has occurred against African Americans, American Indians, Irish immigrants, Asian Americans, Latino’s, gays, the mentally handicapped, and all other groups of minorities. Since the terrorist attacks on 9/11, there has been an increase in racial based attacks against those of Middle Eastern descent, whether they are Muslim or not. Of all of these, African Americans are subjected to the highest number of hate crimes (Martin 1996), with Muslims, homosexuals, and transgendered people on

Crimes based off of hate is a crime that is caused based off a bias towards a person or race. These crimes are called hate crimes and effect people all around of all ages and is a bais that is not easily forgotten. There are laws specifically for this crime that one can be persecuted for just for people who have disagreement about another person’s religion and race , and why we need them in our society. Hate crimes in my opinion are wrong and not needed in this world but can not be forgotten because of history between people. If the history between the people of this world was different then maybe these laws would be unnecessary but we need them to protect the good people in the world who didn’t ask to be different.

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.

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.

There are currently laws in place in the United States that affect how hate crimes are punished. In 1981, Oregon and Washington became the first states to ratify a law preventing and penalizing hate crimes (Nat. Institute of Justice). The first act against hate crimes was put into action by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 (US Department of Justice). In 2009, the United States passed the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which changed some of the laws previously put in place, so that they would cover additional minorities. This act also required data to be kept in regards to crimes committed and reported.

Hate crimes are many different criminal acts such as vandalism, arson, assault, and even murder. Many hate crimes are based on an individual’s race, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and disabilities. Everyone can be potential victims of hate crimes. Anyone from any social class can be considered targets for hate crimes. If you or a group believes in a different religion or speaks a different language and the offenders do not approve, then they will target you. No one can be really safe and overcome hate crimes if they are being targeted. It is a cruel and depressing world. With help as a community can stop hate crimes.

Critical preface: I choose to explore the hate crime problem in society. The reason I choose this topic is because hate crime is a brutal act against people, property, or society because of the group to which they are members or associate with. The hate crime is one of the most notorious crimes which leads to violent acts causing death and disaster. We need to stop these horrible acts and the solution would be to seek advice from an anti-hate organization which help us reduce hate crimes and factual information can then be spread to the society.

Hate crimes happen for multiple reasons, according to Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) in 2015 6, 837 single bias hate crimes were reported. (Uniform Crime Reporting) Among these 58.9 percent stemmed from race, 19.8 were because of religious bias, 17.8 percent were because of

UCR. The difference and changing definitions of hate crime across states is yet to be researched to determine any effects on the rates of reporting and unreporting. However, according to the FBI, the congress, for the purpose of national statistical collection, has decided to define 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.gov). It is suggested by a recent study (Harlow, 2005), that the criteria of a hate crime be uniform across the states. “Due to the difficulty of ascertaining the offender’s subjective motivation, bias is to reported only if investigation reveals sufficient objective facts to lead a reasonable and prudent person to conclude that the offender’s actions were motivated, in whole or in part, by bias” (Harlow, 2005). The two definitions should be similar if not uniform in order for an accurate data.

Hate crimes laws began their development in the United States in the year of 1968. Hate crime laws originally made it illegal to “use, or threaten to use, force ro willingly interfere with any person because of race, color, religion, or national origin, because the person is participating in a federally protected activity” (2017). Laws were later passed to protect housing rights, familial status, and religious property, and in 2009, President Obama passed the Matthew Shephard and James Byrd Prevention Act to protect gender, gender identity, disability, and sexual orientation. Hate crime legislation is necessary. Without these legislations, people of religion, race, national origin, gender, gender identity, disability, and sexual orientation would not be protected under the law.

Hate crime generally refers to 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”, (Hall, 2013).

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 term hate crime was used by a group of advocates to describe a series of violent incidents targeting several minorities (Nij.gov, 2015). 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,

Hate crimes are not a new concept for society, because hate crimes have always been around. While the study of hate crimes and the laws that have been passed because of hate crimes is relatively new, hate crimes have always been around. Hate crimes were committed as far back as the 1800’s and even back to The Civil War. Hate crimes are prevalent in society today just like they were in the past; because whether the crimes are aimed towards Muslims, the gay community, or any other minority group; they are fueled by something that every person has come into contact with- prejudice. Prejudice is defined as a preconceived thought or opinion about someone. While prejudice can be positive, in the concept of hate crimes they are negative feelings,

In 2007, according to the Federal Bureau Investigation of the Nation’s law enforcement agencies “there were 9,535 victims of hate crimes; of these victims17.1 percent were victimized because of a bias against a religious belief which totaled to be 1,628 victims of an anti-religious hate crime” (1). Almost ten thousand people were victims of hate crimes alone in 2007. That is something to be alarmed about because part of living in the U.S.A as minority is to have freedom to do and be anything you want and yet we find that you really don’t have that freedom because you get attacked for practicing that freedom. The increasingly rate of hate crimes is soaring that many states like New York, New Jersey and California now have the highest