Hate Crimes Prevention Act Case Study

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.

The phrase “Hate Crime” rose to prominence in the 1980s, in an attempt to describe crimes against someone based on their race or religion. These crimes were motivated, at least in part and sometimes in entirety, by bias against African Americans and Jews. Since that time, the term has expanded to include illegal acts against a person, organization, and their property based on the criminal’s bias against the victim’s minority class. These minority classes include race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or gender reassignment. These are specific crimes because not only are they crimes against someone, they are committed based on who someone is (Martin 1996). This paper will discuss the history of hate crimes and the response of law enforcement officers to 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.

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.

The United States FBI defines hate crimes as “a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias.” This type of bigotry-driven crime has been a huge issue in the area of politics and justice ever since history began. Such crimes have become increasingly visible over the years due to the advances in technology, and social networking sites that have given a new platform to these issues. As the visibility of hate crime conditions become commonplace, they also become easily identifiable in everyday life. The issue that then arises is that these conditions have not yet become illegal to the degree that they should be held to. Hate crimes should be held at a higher penalty, at the federal level, due to the nature and intent of the crime at hand.

The first federal initiative to combat hate crimes was the Hate Crime Statistics Act (“HCSA”), passed in 1990. The purpose of this act was to “let Congress and law enforcement officials know whether hate crimes are in fact on the rise” and aid in the process of developing

Crime in America is an extremely plaguing issue. However, recently hate crimes specifically have been on the rise. Those targeted by these awful crimes include those from specific race, sex, and sexuality groups, as well as those with disabilities. While, all hate crimes are indeed terrible, those targeting the disabled are especially heinous. To attack someone who can not physically or consciously defend themselves is very cowardly. The authors of Hate Crimes and Disability in America, Brian T. McMahon, Steven L. West, Allen N. Lewis, Amy J. Armstrong, and Joseph P. Conway address the issue of hate crimes against the disabled as well as the statistics and legality of this matter.

This act, also known as, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act, was established in October of 2009 as the result of two malevolent murders. In 1998 Matthew Shepard was tortured and killed because he was believed to be gay. James Byrd Jr. was beaten, dragged behind a truck and eventually decapitated just because he was African American. The people who committed these crimes were later convicted for murder but could not be prosecuted for committing a hate crime because of the existing 1969 Federal Hate Crimes Law at the time. The reason they were not prosecuted was due to the law that stated federal involvement was allowed only when he or she was doing a federally protected activity such as school or serving on a jury. According to the FBI there was a report of 7,600 hate crimes in the U.S and 12,000 hate crimes based on

Everyone worldwide has experienced discrimination because of their race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation. People who shows hate against another person's race, sexuality, and other prejudice are called bigots. Some bigots tend to take their hate to another level causing their temper and animosity to lead to violence. When a bigot uses violence to hate upon other individuals is known as a hate crime. According to Mark Potok, from the Southern Poverty Law Center, studies show that about 250,000 biased crimes happen yearly, and most of them are unreported. Hate crimes is a serious issue that seeks and demands more recognition from not only society, but from federal and state authority.

“The term hate crime was coined in the 1980s by journalists and policy advocates who were attempting to describe a series of incidents directed at Jews, Asians and African-Americans. The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines hate crime (also known as 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.(National Institute of justice, Paragraph 1, December 22, 2010.)”

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,

Although the bias was apparent through his speech, it was made provable through the young men’s actions in which he inclined. But this is where hate crime statues become tricky, and face most opposition. Those against hate crime statutes argue just that, of one’s rights being violated if a penalty-enhancement is enforced.

The Hate Crime Prevention Act provides funding and technical assistances to state, local, and tribal jurisdictions to help them to more effectively investigate and prosecute hate crimes (The United States Department of Justice, 2015). This specific policy also created a new federal law against individuals who committed a crime based on a victim’s: religion, national origin, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or disability (The United State Department of Justice, 2015). The theory of social justice is a theory that share a connection with the Hate Crime Prevention Act because it illustrates the fair and equal treatment of all individuals. According to Robinson (2010) John Rawls a theorist who published “Justice as Fairness” stated the theory of social justice develops principles of justice that governs a modern social order.

Most people in the United States today are familiar with the idea of hate crimes, and there are. Of course, those who have been subjected to them. Simply put, a hate crime is determined to be, “… a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias.” (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2017) These prejudicially-based crimes target victims who belong to, or increasingly, are perceived to belong to, a particular group of people, such a race; a religious affiliation; gender identity; and sexual orientation. While legislation in this area does its best to balance the protection of victimized groups and persons, the law must also consider the rights and protections of the victimizer, as determined by the Fourteenth Amendment.

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