Hate Crimes In Our Society

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.

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.

A hate crime is a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias. For the purposes of collecting statistics, the FBI 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, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” Hate itself is not a crime—and the FBI is mindful of protecting freedom of speech and other civil liberties.

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

Throughout the country the people have seen a variety of problems with the justice system and how nothing is being done to fix the problems. For instance,The amount of hate crimes against foreign U.S citizens is at an all time high, there are too many innocent minorities are being killed by law enforcement, and the level of police abuse is at a record high. These crimes are causing major problems for the society and its people. The problems that have occurred within the crime and justice system are intolerable and the democrats are going to help by attempting to fix these problems to the best of their ability.

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

A hate crime is a crime directed to an individual or group of individuals due to their age, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity. Hate crimes are caused by a feeling of being threatened by a certain group of people which causes the perpetrator to act on angrily. Ever since the concept emerged in the late 1970s, laws were passed in numerous U.S. states mandating penalties for malicious crimes motivated by bias or bigotry against a particular group. Crimes motivated by bias or hate, are committed to send out a message to both the immediate victim, and as well as the group the individual identifies himself/herself as (Legislation, 2012). Some perpetrators commit hate crimes with their peers as a thrill or under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol; some as a reaction against a received threat; and some out of resentment over the growing economic power of particular racial or ethnic group scapegoating. Of all crimes, hate crimes are most likely to create tensions, which can trigger larger community-wide racial conflict, civil disturbances, and even riots. Hate crimes put cities at-risk of serious social and economic consequence. The costs of racial conflicts and civil disturbance are police, fire, and medical personnel overtime, injury or death, business and property loss, and damage to vehicles and equipment. Penalties for the U.S. Federal Law Hate Crime Convictions in the United States. The penalty is a prison term up to ten years if the hate

Hate violence refers to crimes that are directed against families, persons, organizations, or groups due to their ethnic, racial, sexual, religious identities, orientations or conditions of disability (Whitlock & Bronski, 2016). Accordingly, hate violence included crimes of arson at the business or homes, damage and destruction of religious property, personal assaults, homicides, and cross burnings. In the United States, hate violence has a long history. However, although it might be challenging to assess and estimate the prevalence of this kind of hate in the United States, there are clear indications that the problem has increased in recent years (Whitlock & Bronski, 2016). Connectively,

Given that our society has such a dense population of different races, ethnicities, religions and sexual orientations, it is important to understand both the goals and challenges of policing and dealing with hate and bias crimes. Considering that since the beginning stages of immigration we have tried to support successful assimilation, hate and bias crimes create a huge barrier. Hate and bias crimes “occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her membership in a certain social group, usually defined by race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, or political affiliation” (en.wikipedia.org). Not only is it difficult for our society to identify this sort of crime,

and their extents. As a recently coined term, it was not widely known as to what exactly it entailed. HSCA would give one the ability to see, in numbers, how often the crimes were occurring.

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.

According to the FBI’s hate crime statistics in 2015, race, ethnicity, and ancestry bias (59.2%) are the most common victims that are targeted (Hate Crimes Statistics, 2015). Hate crimes are a “criminal offence against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity” (Hate Crimes, 2017). Joseph Paul Franklin was an American racist serial killer known for his hate homicides. He was considered the sniper because he would pick off his victims from a distance using a high power rifle with scope. Joseph started his killing spree in 1977, and in 1980 he was finally stopped.

The simplest definition of what a hate crime is, is a crime committed against a victim due to his or her perceived role in a social group. Social groups can be defined by many factors such as sexual orientation, race, disability, religion, age, gender and many other factors. Within this essay I aim to evaluate the causes of hate crime and also to assess the impact of crime on victims and the strategies used for responding to hate crime. The types of hate crime I am going to be focusing on are race, sexual orientation and gender.

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,