The Rise Of Hate Crimes

Hate Crimes: crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or religion(Federal officials, 2011). Hate crimes have been around for centuries. A hate crime is considered any malicious crime that is derived from hatred towards a certain group of people. African Americans are still victim to hate crimes, even after the Civil Rights movement. James Byrd Jr. suffered a prime example of a gruesome hate crime in 1998, because of his African American descent. Three white men, allegedly, chained Byrd to the back of a pickup truck and dragged him down a gravel road, leaving his body parts severed and bloody (Marty,1998). Recently, a new group of people has been targeted by the hateful view

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.

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

While hate crime is a fairly new label for a crime, the existence of hate crimes has been present since the early days of the United States. Throughout US history, murders, assaults, and destruction of property has occurred against African Americans, American Indians, Irish immigrants, Asian Americans, Latino’s, gays, the mentally handicapped, and all other groups of minorities. Since the terrorist attacks on 9/11, there has been an increase in racial based attacks against those of Middle Eastern descent, whether they are Muslim or not. Of all of these, African Americans are subjected to the highest number of hate crimes (Martin 1996), with Muslims, homosexuals, and transgendered people on

A hate crime is a crime of prejudice. The commitment of hate crimes is motivated by racial, sexual and even religious differences that often result to violence and death. America today is besieged by hate crimes. It seems that everywhere we turn, in the newspapers, on television and on social media, hate crimes are not only reported but are actually supported. It is unprecedented in American history how much bigotry is thrown out in our faces from the news and in social media. (Patillo, 2017) Behind every hate crime is a message. This is why the mainstream media and social media have become platforms for various groups to brag about their religious and racial biases and what they intend to do about those who against their beliefs. Hate crimes are espoused by religious and racial bigots to sow hate and dissension in order to convince people that their religious and racial prejudices are correct. Politicians, law enforcement units and the local community have to take firm steps to prevent such acts of violence from occurring in their locality.

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.

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.

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.

Hate Crime in the United States of America THESIS: In this research paper, information will be given on hate crime in the United States of America. It’s best to know about these types of crimes before it’s too late because it’s rarely reported or spoken about but does occur on regular bases. Hate crime didn't come about until the early 1980's. It's sad how these types of crimes still occur so many years later; there are innocent people who are attacked simply because of their race, religion or sexual orientation. Based on the articles, hate crime in the USA is very common and the chances to be a victim are high enough. Hate crimes are ignorant and pointless, they need to be stopped.Done to many different people in many different

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

From 1999 to 2011 there have been a 600+ increase in the number of hate groups in America and Montana, Louisiana, Arkansas, New Jersey, and Texas all have over sixteen active hate groups (@splcenter). “According to the FBI Hate Crime Statistics released in November 2009, hate crimes are at their highest rate since 2001,” (RAC). Out of every 2,000 religion based offenses roughly 1,050 of them are aimed at Jews. In 2010 alone there were 3,949 victims of a religiously motivated crime (FBI). In 2005 there were 5,190 cases of hate crime by murder and manslaughter. Although most people believe hate crimes to be against just an individual but 17.6 percent of reported victims were businesses, financial institutions, religious organizations, society or the public. Most people think that hate crimes would be committed in an unpopulated place but 31.4 percent average of all hate crimes were committed in or near a residence or neighborhood. All of the statistics that are provided for by any agency or organization are under-rated by the fact that not everyone will report a hate crime of fear and intimidation. Most of the statistics of hate crimes are leveling out since 2011 with mild increases or decreases because of the awareness that people are creating with the

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.

On the heels of the recently concluded presidential election our nation has seen a staggering increase in hate crimes. The re emergence of oppressive practices, emboldened violence, and blatant bias against segments of the population threatens the fundamental constitutional premise that guarantees freedom, liberty, and justice for all.

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

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,