Hate Crimes

Chapter 7 pertains to victims of violence and who they are. I was informed about the legal rights of violent crime victims, such as the general list of victim rights that stemmed from the Crime Victims Assistance Act of 1988. I also learned about the different types of hate crimes and the consequences of hate crime victimization. Another point touched on in this chapter was crimes against the homeless and how environmental degradation is an act of violence. The section of this chapter that interested me the most was learning about the victims of violent sexual assault. Unfortunately the notion of victim blame seemed to be a recurring theme in this chapter and was a main point made when learning about the myths of rape against women.

Recent data has shown an increase in the number of hate crimes being committed within the United States. Hate groups also are mobilizing. This poses a problem for Americans. The Southern Poverty Law Center provides a solution for this by monitoring hate groups and gathering information about them. To continue doing this, they need donations to keep operating but multiple barriers exist for individuals to contribute funds.

There are many intricacies when it comes to policing hate crime laws, of any sort. So, as a relatively recent implementation into the judiciary system, law enforcement agencies are continually learning how to properly address such instances.

Hate crime today, is defined as a crime that is inspired race, sexuality, gender, disability or ethnicity that involves violence or prejudice actions. Some say change is coming to the world against hate crimes because hate crime has been slowly decreasing over the years. Sexuality has been an issue for many people in the world because they do not accept one to be happy with themselves. Many people think telling other what to do, how to live, and how to be happy is the way to life, but it isn’t. Many think it’s unethical in most religion, many think it’s inhumane but what really matters to those who get bullied is how they feel about themselves. People should be comfortable with their sexuality, not always put down, especially when it comes to being violently abused. Hate crimes on sexuality have been around for many years and the methods people used are disturbing and unnecessary for their own satisfaction because it helps solve nothing. The history to present day is a fascinating story to how things changed for the better or worse.

Culture permeates every part of life. As Americans, maybe this is harder to see. Yet, everything from the way we talk to what we choose to wear is the result of culture. This makes it vital to understand that many things have a cultural significance. Abu-Lughod expresses her dismay over the “obsession with the plight of Muslim women” being focused on the burqa (209). Many people have adopted the burqa as the symbol of the oppression of Muslim women. Yet, the burqa is simply a form of covering originally specific to the Pashtun people. Each form of covering is part of the Islamic religion. Each holds significance for the community that wears it. The purpose of women wearing a veil of any kind is to “assure their protection in the public sphere from the harassment of

Race, ethnicity,gender sexuality and religion when one acts turns into violence when individuals are victimized because of race, ethnicity gender sexuality and religion due to one’s personal belief that one do not belong in a certain neighborhood. Innocent lives are taken for one’s personal prejudice. Minorities are born in a world where unfairness and challenges are in their lives before they could understand it.

An estimated 50 pupils from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia attending Idaho State school in Pocatello, Idaho, were the goals of a string of hate-associated crimes, together with off-campus dwelling burglaries, auto vandalism and experiences of bodily abuse.

Given everything that has been going on in this country, people turn to hate crimes and rioting thinking it is the best solution to solve every problem given to us by the government and the media. One of the big problems is the media, whether it be the news on TV or the internet, they contort every problem to conform to what they want there viewers to believe. As one of my college professors told me “sometimes the media has to create their own problems so they can cover the story” (Riggenbach), ok something like that. For example, there was a story on the news where someone caught a cop shooting what looked like a homeless man. Since more people watch the news on TV versus reading a story on a website they don't get the whole thing. What had

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 have a devastating effect, beyond the harm inflicted on any, one victim ().  They resound through families, communities, and the entire nation, as others fear that they too could be threatened, attacked, or forced from their homes, because of what they look like, who they are, where they worship, whom they love, or whether they have a disability (). Hate crime is defined as an offense in which the victim is targeted because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or national origin of that victim (Sullaway, 2004). On the basis of the legal definition, most researchers of hate crime tend to conceptualize hate crime as a manifestation of intergroup conflict or violence (e.g., Levin & McDevitt, 2002; Levin & Rabrenovic, 2001). They are motivated by the distinctiveness of the victim(s)because the offender only targets victims with different groups (Sun, K, 2006) and they tend to justify themselves with numerous excuses, however, researchers have now been questioning the offender's mentality. With this sort of conceptualization of a hate crime and the reasoning behind them, it has then since begun to change clinical interventions with the victims of a hate crime and the research done is now focusing on the objective of the offender of a hate crime and distinctive factors or with lead to the offender's mentality.

Throughout history, members of the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, and queer community (LGBTQ) have been persecuted because of their sexual orientation. There has been a tremendous struggle for power, within the LGBTQ community. Throughout the years, people have tried to suppress the rights of these individuals, because of their own moral beliefs. Some methods they pursue are more aggressive than others. Certain individuals will stop at nothing to keep this community down, and will even act with ruthless aggression to do so. There are a multitude of cases within the last decade to prove this true. When someone does decide to this, they are considered hate crimes.

In November of 2015, the Federal Bureau of Investigations published a statistics report on hate crimes that was based on incidents that occurred the previous year. The data showed that there was about a ten percent decline of incidents documented since the prior year. But not all of the groups correlated with this report saw decreases in hate crimes. Occurrences involving Muslims have increased in the last several years after shifting for a decade following the wake of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Prejudgment towards Muslims isn’t something that is new though, according to hate crime data and surveys. About fifty percent of U.S. Catholics, Jews, Protestants, Mormons, and Muslims believed that most Americans were prejudiced toward Muslim Americans in a 2010 Gallup survey. The survey also uncovered that Muslims were more likely to experience religious discrimination than any other religious group. A matter of fact Muslim Americans are five times more likely to be a victim of a hate crime today than before 9/11 according to the FBI. But not all people believe that Muslim discrimination is such a massive problem that impacts many people’s lives. Florida senator and U.S. presidential candidate Marco Rubio stated in an interview, “Where is there widespread evidence that we have a problem in America with discrimination against Muslims?” which is rather amusing because if Mr. Rubio were to have done a quick internet search he would have

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

Many Americans started fearing Muslims after the September 9th, 2001 incident. After that incident, Islam became the most hateful religion to many in the US. The hatred against Islam worsened when the 45th president Donald Trump was elected. People began doing hateful things towards Muslims because they knew there would not be any consequences to their actions. All of these factors have contributed to the fear many Muslims living in the United States feel. Being a Muslim American living in the US has become complicated. Safety has become a concern for many Islamic families living in the US. Islam is one of the most peaceful religions on earth. However, we cannot ignore that there are people who use religion to commit hateful crimes. It is

Over the past decade school violence has been on the rise. School violence has always existed in some form or another, whether it is a fight out on the playground or a stabbing in the parking lot. However nothing got the nation 's attentions like on April 20, 1999, Columbine school shooting. Ever since that day the nation wants to know what to do to protect the kids in this country. Violence motivated by a bias against victims’ characteristics which include race, religion, ethnic background, national origin, gender, or sexual orientation, represents a serious threat to all communities. Experts estimate that a bias-related crime is committed every 14 minutes. Criminal justice officials and state policy makers need to realize that it is key to make or adjust hate crime legislation. This has been a heated debate for centuries. The key to solving the ever-growing problem of hate crimes is more hate crime legislation.