Hate Crimes

In 2009, 6,604 hate crime incidents were reported to the FBI, 48.8% of which were motivated by race, 19.7% by religious prejudice, 18.5%by sexual orientation, 11.8% by ethnicity, and 1.5% by disability bias (Hate Crime Statistics, 2009). Recently, the FBI released the 2010 statistics that unfortunately reveal a slight increase in the number of hate crime incidents: 6,628 incidents were reported in 2010, 47.3% of which were motivated by race, 20% by religious prejudice, 19.3% by sexual orientation, 12.8% by ethnicity, and .6% by disability bias (Hate Crime Statistics, 2010). While racially-motivated and disability-motivated crimes appear to have decreased, hate crime motivated by religion, sexual orientation, and ethnicity has risen in the last year. Improvements in hate crime laws and punishments are necessary in order for these statistics to decrease.

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.

In “How the NSA’s Domestic Spying Program Works,” the author reveals that many of “aspects of the (NSA) Program were aimed not just at targeted individuals, but perhaps millions of innocent Americans never suspected of a crime.” The author develops his thesis by detailing a few examples of major telecommunication companies that share customer’s call records to the NSA (AT&T, Sprint) and explaining that programs were implemented to monitor the emails of citizens (“amounted to at least 1.7 billion emails a day”). The author uses examples of how NSA decisions were made without a “warrant or any judicial oversight,” in order to increase citizen awareness of how the NSA functions. The author uses a erudite tone to address the audience of Americans

On June 6, 2013, The Guardian published a story about the National Security Agency's (NSA) secret Internet surveillance program, PRISM (Greenwald and MacAskill 2013). The story was based on documents leaked by one of the most successful whistle-blowers in American history, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The documents that Snowden has released up to this time have shown the NSA to be heavily engaged in the collection of personal Internet activity, bulk collection of telephone "metadata," and other forms of surveillance that have brought U.S. intelligence practices into question.

Within this review article, it identifies the barriers of disability hate crime, in regards to identification, investigation and prosecution. The main focus of this journal article is how there is a lack of clarity in the existing policies of what constitute a disability hate crime and a lack of agencies action. Furthermore, social attitudes continue to be an existing barrier in relation to disabled people. Brereton argues that, agencies and policies need to improve their practices and responses when dealing with disabled victims of hate crime. This article was important in demonstrating the failures of the current policies and agencies involved with disabled victims of hate crimes. This information has helped me to understand the issues within

In today’s society the hate crime rate has dramatically boosted with the integration and diversity of various cultures. In fact, in 2012 over 5,000 hate crimes were reported in the United States. Statistics have concluded that out of the 5,000 hated crimes, the majority of them are related to racial discrimination, social discrimination, sexual discrimination, and economical discrimination. These crimes can range anywhere from physical and verbal assault, to vandalism, and robbery. Due to the inflation of these bias crimes, authorities are not able to demolish these immortalities from occurring. Out of the many bias crimes in America, I have narrowed my topic of research to the Wayne Community College massacre case.

Enhanced sentencing – courts are obligated to enhance sentences, if proven a crime was motivated by hostility based on race/religious grounds.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 was a result of “congressional investigations into Federal surveillance activities conducted in the name of national security” (Intelligence Surveillance Act, n.d.). FISA allows for judicial and congressional supervision of foreign surveillance, while maintaining the “secrecy necessary to effectively monitor national security threats”, and outlines the procedures for the physical and electronic surveillance and collection of foreign intelligence information (Intelligence Surveillance Act, n.d.).

The Klu Klux Klan, one of the most recognised hate groups in US history, was founded in 1865. They were under the impression that people of color were less valuable than white people, some even believing that they weren't human. Something people don’t realize is that groups like that are still around today, and just as active as ever. Hate groups, and just random unorganised hate crimes are just as real as me and you, and they are still an active threat. Hate Crime is relevant, and as a society, we should be doing our best to snuff out the flames of prejudice and resentment that burn in the hearts of anyone willing to participate in such unjust behavior. This kind of activity is not only hurtful emotionally, but sometimes, it turns to violence. Innocent people getting picked off the street simply because of their beliefs, who they love, or the color of their skin. This is something that nobody should stand for, especially now, in this constantly progressing world. All in all, Hate Crimes are a real problem, and in order to stop injustice such as this, we need to work together as human beings to accept people, regardless of who they are.

Profile of a Hate Crime Offender Sterilized from emotion, hate crime, also called bias crime, is those offenses motivated in part or singularly by personal prejudice against other because of a diversity-race, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity/national origin, or disability. Hate crimes are committed out of anger, ignorance, and lack of knowledge of another’s ideas and beliefs. There are many causes for an individual to commit a hate crime. Also, many different profiles fit the description of a hate crime offender. There are ways to prevent and control hate crimes, but they will always be present in society as long as every person has the right to express his or her opinion.

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).

Bias crimes have a more major effect than other crimes on not only just the victim, but on others too (“Hate Crimes”). “Studies suggest that victims of bias crimes are more likely than other crime victims to suffer psychological trauma such as depression, withdrawal, anxiety, and feelings of helplessness and isolation” (“Hate Crimes”). Being a specific target because of who a person is can have major consequences on the victim's health. Supporters say, “They affect everyone who shares the victim's race, religion, or other targeted characteristic” (“Hate Crimes”). Many people are affected when one person has been a victim of a hate crime because people who share the characteristic begin

People that are involved in hate crimes should be punished in some way, with all the events that have occurred in these past couple of months is causing anger and fear to many people and it will probably cause people not wanting to be in the streets because who knows what might

Governments have for centuries attempted to restrict the privacy of their citizens. For some time now this has also included efforts to regulate citizens’ communications data by means of collecting and storing information gathered by providers of communication services. These efforts are referred to as data retention measures and would grant law enforcement agencies unlimited access to this data (Clarke, 2014).

Do you ever get that feeling you’re being watched? It is interesting how much power the government actually has over privacy. When a registered sex offender, lets say a “peeping tom” moves into a neighborhood, laws require that they notify people living in that neighborhood. If they peaked through a window, they were required to tell others, but when the government peaks into our most personal information and locations 24/7, they can get away with it. The government should not be able to look at all the data and on your phone without a warrant. Law enforcement agencies have been targeting cell phone users without their knowledge, and most service providers will very easily hand over customers information such as call logs, text messages, GPS locations, and web history without a court order to do so violating the fourth amendment.