This Note will focus solely on federal hate crime legislation as it pertains to racially motivated hate crimes. While there is currently federal legislation in place, it should be modified to mandate the charging of hate crimes when sufficient evidence is present to indicate an offense was committed because of racially motivated bias. Part II provides a brief history of hate crimes, hate crime legislation, and the need for hate crime legislation in America. Part III…
A hate crime is an assault or any other crime directed at a person of another race or religion. Hate crimes are usually very brutal and harmful, and victims are not only hurt physically but also are emotionally traumatized and terrified (Fritsch et al, 2015). For others in the community who have similar victim’s characteristic, they may also feel victimized and vulnerable, posing a possible increase in an attempt to retaliate for the original offense. The legislation does not allow individuals to be prosecuted for their hateful thoughts, but instead allows them to be punished for their hateful acts. Thus, willfully inflicting…
Hate crimes happens any and every where, in small and large cities, and every state. As long as hate crimes have been happening the actual name “hate crime” is new and so is the idea of special treatment of these offenses (Gerstenfeld 2010). The first hate crime law was not passed until 1980 and 3 decades later only 44 states, District of Columbia and the federal government have some form of hate crime legislation (Gerstenfeld 2010). In this day and time I find it hard to believe that not all 50 states have some type of hate crime law. Some people do not believe there should be special laws for hate crimes because they say all violent crimes are hateful regardless of race and sexual orientation. Those in favor of hate crime laws argue that there are hate crime laws because; the person who commits a hate crime deserve an increased punishment because these type of crimes are worse than ordinary; hate crime laws will deter the act; and that the laws will show that this type of crime is not allowed (Gerstenfeld 2010). In the US the most frequently reported hate crime is racism against blacks with 3,000 of the 8,000 hate crime reported to the FBI against black people (FBI 2009). In 1990 the Hate Crime Statistics Act was…
Who are the victims in a hate crime? Victimization does not end with the primary person that was attacked. The Laramie Project demonstrated how the entire community, and eventually the nation, of a little town in Wyoming was affected by the death of 22 year old Matthew Shepard in October, 1998. Secondary victims, who do not bear the physical pain, but endure the after effects and emotional pain, included Matthew’s parents, Deputy Sheriff Reggie Fluty (who was called to the crime scene and tended to Matthew), and Doctor Cantway (who treated both Matthew and one of his attackers, Aaron McKinney) (Karmen, 2013). The effects of this hate crime saturated a society and called more than morals into question. Incidents like these force humanity to look at itself and criticize its core beliefs. Laramie’s motto of “Live and Let Live” applied to most…
Hate crimes exist because there is a lack of understanding and compassion for all people. Often time’s offenders are taught to hate a certain group of people because of their differences. Most hate crime offenders feel powerless growing up, they have an inferiority complex. Offenders were usually abused or teased as kids. Growing up as a kid who feels inferior, they learn to compensate in a negative, discriminating manner. They grow to hate out of a great need to feel powerful, this need is a direct result of how they were treated as a child. The ability to learn hate and prejudice is as natural as the ability to learn society’s most cherished values. Researchers have shown that those who commit hate crimes learn to hate, or discriminate against others at an early age. Most offenders often lack education and social skills. In some cases victims become offenders. They don’t understand what they did to provoke the perpetrator, and they retaliate against their attacker or someone similar to their attacker. Education and awareness can prevent these acts of violence. Teaching our children to love and be compassionate to their fellow man is a good way to prevent hate, which can turn into hate crimes. The ability to have an open mind and accept others as they are can also contribute to the prevention of…
|What questions do you have about the topic that you would like to|What is a hate crime?…
Body Paragraph One Topic Sentence: This paragraph is about racial hate crimes. Racial hate crimes are crimes committed because of somebody's color, or race. In one hate crime, A white-supremacist shot killed nine people at a church in Charleston, South Carolina. He was only 21 years old, and had walked into a church and shot African-Americans that had ages range from 27 all the way to 87. He had made sure one person was left alive to tell the story (NewsCurrents). A notorious white-supremacist group called the Ku Klux Klan (or the KKK) has been around since 1865 (Southern Poverty Law Center). According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, “Today, the Center estimates that there are between 5,000 and 8,000 Klan members, split among dozens of different - and often warring - organizations that use the Klan name”(SPLC). The final group that is the worst of the bunch is the Racist Skinheads. A skinhead is a person that has short, usually bald hair, black boots, and aggressive. Add racism into that, and you get a short tempered, racist, neo-nazi. According to Southern Poverty Law Center ¨Racist skinheads are among the most dangerous radical-right threats facing law enforcement today. The products of a frequently violent and criminal subculture, these men and women, typically imbued with neo-Nazi beliefs about Jews, blacks, LGBT people and…
Now examples on why this is correct my idea is correct because In the article Racial Disparities in Hate Crime Reporting by Heather Zaykowski, she makes points involving hate crime reports, such as the following. There has been an increase in interest with hate crimes, but yet there is still not much information known about it. The explanation to why there is not much information on it is because of the lack of reporting. 8,000 hate crimes were reported to police in 2006, while other sources reported higher estimates than the UCR (Unified Carrier Registration) suggest. Recently the Bureau of Justice released that over 200,000 individuals are victims of hate crimes per year. Individuals should understand that if there was an increase in reporting it would acknowledged hate crimes as a legal offense. There is not much reporting in hate crimes because of many reasons, but one of the most popular reasons researched suggest that minorities are deficient in reporting because they lack confidence and trust in police. They have been influenced by the portrayal of race relations through media. There is also less of a need of police in minorities because of their negative attitudes towards them. It has been examined that whites have a more successful incrimination rate as they have more support and greater accesses to…
In the United States hate crimes has been an issue to where it should be taken seriously. ‘’Hate crimes and bias motivated crimes …’’ involve crimes that are related to violence which are motivated by…’’ prejudice against a victims race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or disability’’(Langton, Planty). Throughout history people who were involved in hate crimes were known as the KKK, the League of the South, Aryan nations and much more. Not only has it been a problem in the past but gradually continues to evolve into a bigger problem. Through these tensions of hate crimes against one another, people have ended up brutalized, or sometimes beaten to death. Minorities from different places of the world have been experiencing hate crimes in the United States due to the difference race, sexual orientation and religion.…
Crimes committed against an individual that were wholly or in part based on the victim’s race, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation are all classified as hate crimes. Targets of these crimes include, individuals, businesses, or even society as a whole.(fbi.gov) “Hate crime legislation at the federal or state level takes on four specific forms: (1) statutes defining hate crimes as substantive offenses, (2) sentence enhancement, (3) statistics collection, and (4) civil remedies.” (” www.ncjrs.gov”) As part of a larger initiative to combat violent crime, The Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement act was put in to place in 1994. The Act requires the United States Sentencing Commission to “promulgate guidelines or amend existing guidelines to…
The available resources for the investigation and prosecution of these crimes are not sufficient to effect meaning change. Many people continue to be unaware of what hate crimes are or fail to the see the seriousness of this issue. Fighting against hate crimes is very important in protecting groups of people from being harassed and hurt. What people can do to help change and stop Hate Crimes from happening around is by setting good examples by showing respect for through actions and by watching what they say to others. People can also raise awareness that bias motivated incidents are crimes and should be reported to law enforcement. There are also ways that High school students can help by starting a conflict resolution in their school. Hate is just not an attack on a person but it’s also an attack on a community. Hate tears society along racial ethnic gender and religion lines. The U.S Department of justice that hate crimes more than any other crime can trigger larger community conflict, civil disturbances and even riots. Hate crime can escalates very quickly. Take for example the smallest hint of hate even what appears to be simply name-calling. The Department of justice again has a warning slurs often escalate to harassment harassment to threats and threats to physical violence. People don’t really understand how important Hate Crime Legislations…
Over the years, hate crimes has been of the biggest issue in the American history. Since the time of colonization human has been victims of hate crime. In most of the cases of hate crimes, victims don’t report this crime because lack of criminalization. Minorities/powerless groups are the most common victims of hate crime and sometimes their rights are not protected as majority group.…
Only 10% of hate crimes are related to sexual orientation. Social scientists suggest that hate crimes result in the feeling of power. By making someone feel inferior, the attackers will feel superior to that group of people being discriminated against. Social scientists also claim that prejudice results from being socialized or through life experiences. In 1990, the Hate Crime Statistics Act was passed which collected and publicized statistics about crimes committed through bias. After this study, hate crimes increased dramatically and with recognition of these crimes increasing, the minority supporters promoted for there to be penalties for committing these hate crimes. These minority supporters gained laws that allowed the increase of the sentence for a criminal who committed a hate crime. Social scientists suggest that the victims of hate crimes are inflicted with more psychical and psychological…
For many years America has encountered different hate crimes. During the twentieth-century the law changed and evolved into a mechanism to protect civil rights. When race protection became the primary focus, the direction of the law changed to protect all races from discrimination. African-Americans were the primary race that was affected by racial violence from the Ku Klux Klan (Perry, 2009). This issue was very devastating and this drew a lot of attention to the Supreme Court. The changes that were made were based off the hate crimes that were present at the moment, so the Supreme Court enhanced the punishments involving hate crimes. This protected many people from being discriminated against and from any acts of racial violence. Restrictions…
“PSYCHOLOGY: A Framework for Everyday Thinking by Scott O. Lilienfeld, Steven Jay Lynn, Laura L.…