This crime came at a time of rising ant-Muslim tension and hate crimes that have been occurring nationwide. Beyond the shared sense of the need to stop hate crimes and change the status quo of different races, political bureaucracies play a major role in determining and implementing changes like social reforms. This is unfortunate, for people and the power elites (i.e. politicians and people with influence) may have different agendas. The preconceived notions that come along with terms like “race” and “religion” are not natural phenomena, they are socially constructed. If the majority of people believe that race and religion should not matter in society, why have policies toward preventing discrimination been stagnant? What is it that makes change so difficult? To understand why change has proven to be so difficult, we need to deconstruct the cultural, power, and structural elements within a society. These are key sociological concepts used to discuss complex societal issues. Culture explores why things are done the way they are, and why people act the way they do. This provides a basis for determining what society considers “real” and “normal”. This concept is crucial when analyzing the difficulties to change because it determines what values we should support, and what ideologies should reject. Power is central to making change difficult because it is the ability to influence the actions of individuals by defining their choices. These can include all forms of influences
Recently, in a response to an increase in violence, the state of Wisconsin passes a law that enhances the penalty for any offense committed against a victim where the crime is committed because of hatred for the victim’s race, sex, or religion. Prior to discussing whether or not this penalty enhancement violates the civil jurisdiction given to the state from God; one must first provide the foundation of the jurisdiction of the state from the biblical principles. First, Christ recognizes that God has all authority “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God” Roman 13:1 (King James Online). In addition, Christ recognizes jurisdiction “and Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the
Hate crimes, two small words with a very big meaning. Hate crimes are happening everywhere, some hit the news, some go into newspapers and others don’t even make it to the point of any social awareness at all. Hate crimes are a targeted attack, one that should not be taken lightly. While hate crime laws infringe on free speech rights, acts of hate should be criminalized because groups of hate crimes have had a huge impact on social behavior for a long period of time, hate crimes victimize the entire community causing public damage, and the overall threat hate crimes pose on society without the repeated use of penalties.
Hate crimes can be described as criminal activities that are perceived to be fueled by prejudice against and hostility towards the victim based on an individual characteristic. In most cases, hate crimes are motivated by gender, disability, sexual orientation, race, identity, and religion or faith. The increase in hate crimes in the recent past has not only made it a major issue that needs to be addressed in the modern society but has also attracted several legislative measures to deal with it. However, dealing with this major societal issue not only requires these legislative measures but also necessitate creative and critical thinking to enhance the effectiveness of initiatives taken to address it.
Which ethnic group of individuals does it seem that most hate crime is committed against?
Hate crimes are basically crimes that a group or someone in which hate is the motive and can involve intimidation, harassment, physical force, threat of physical force against a person, group, or property. Hate crimes can be based on disability, race, sexuality, religion or values that the victim(s) has. Some example of hate crimes can be racial hate crimes, which is the most dominant in the public. Another hate crime can be sexual orientation. Since people are declaring their sexual orientation as gay, lesbian or straight, and there are individuals who are against some of those orientation so a hate crime arises. There is also the disability hate crime, which depends entirely on the definition of the disability. People with physical disability, visual impairment or mental impairment are normally the victims of hate crimes.
What is a lynching? How many lynchings are estimated to have taken place in our country? What are some reasons that people were lynched? (www.withoutsanctuary.org)
The hate crimes law failed again in the Indiana legislation. Indiana will remain one of five states in the country without a hate crimes law.
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.
There has always been presence of hate crimes amongst all people: particularly directed against minority groups. Before being accepted by society, minority groups have had to endure some kind of hostility against them. Enduring this hostility while advocating for their rights earned them acceptance into society. In my reading of Chapter 7, I came across the Race-Conflict Theory about hate crimes and my mind immediately made a connection to a recent murder that is believed to have been a hate crime. I choose this particular article because it terrifies me that anti-Muslim hate crimes are on the rise. I have always heard of people who complained about hate crimes that they experienced or about being mistreated because they are from a particular ethnic
First, from the victim's point of view, the purpose of hate/bias crimes adds the extra dimensions of fear and devaluation to the victimization. Someone has been targeted due to a core characteristic of his or her identity that cannot be changed. If membership in a target group is readily visible, the victim may feel particularly vulnerable to a repeat attack that can result in a feeling of hopelessness. The fears are also exacerbated because society has been slower to respond to hate/bias crimes than to random "stranger" crimes. The victim may then become afraid to associate with other members of the group who have been targeted or may resist seeking needed services, believing that these actions will increase his or her
Additionally, the US encounters several religious discriminations with members of one religion attacking members of another religion often ending in loss of life. Similarly, White Americans regularly attack African-Americans because of their race. All these happen in the US despite having sound hate crime legislation (CITE).
problem in today's society, but it is not dealt with the same violent manner as
This paper will explore the long-term effects a hate crime has on the victim and his or her community. The victims and communities are directly and indirectly affected by the crime. Victims suffered long term effects such as negative mental and physical health, anxiety, depression, and symptoms of PTSD. The affected communities were victimized solely for sharing the same characteristics and beliefs of the victim. The long lasting effects of the hate crime influence every aspect of the victim’s life and those communities involved. Coping mechanisms such as support groups helped the victim and the communities regain some normality in their lives.
Governments bear the responsibility for curbing hate crimes in their specific communities. Several areas of the criminal justice system should be evaluated including priority gaps, policy gaps, reporting gaps, training issues, concerns about consequences for reporting hate crimes, and any prejudices within the system that prevent reportage of these crimes (Wessler, 2009). Hate crime ordinances serve as a deterrent to hate crime (United States Department of Justice, 2001). Creating various offense levels with criminal penalties tied to each level, produces a system that serves to diminish hate crimes. Further, once these measures are instituted, local governments can establish boards that monitor and report on hate crime statistics. In addition,
Hate crimes has become an increasing problem here in the united states ranging from racial hatred to gender discrimination but what are hate crimes? According to Dr. Jack McDevitt, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston Hate crimes are message crimes, Hate crimes are defined as crimes that are violent act against people, property, or organizations because of the group to which they belong or identify with. The coined term “hate crimes” was first used No matter how many different definitions there are for hate crimes but we all can agree that hate crimes are wrong and immoral. But within hate crimes they are many different types of hate crimes. One of the main reasons that people commit hate crimes would