Hate Crimes
A hate crime can be defined in two ways, by the legal definition and the criminological definition. The legal definition of a hate crime is a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias, a criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation. The criminological definition of a hate crime is a crime committed as an act of prejudice, or any hate incident which constitutes a criminal offence perceived by the victim or any other person, as being motivated by hate or prejudice. Hate crime typologies consists of 4 types of categories: Thrill, reactive/defensive, mission, and retaliatory. Thrill crimes were described as criminal behavior set off by a desire for excitement and power and to have some fun and to stir up a little excitement at someone else’s expense. The goal of thrill crimes is plainly the want to seek some sort of thrill, but it also may be sadistic, usually committed by a group of peers seeing as they are very influential. The targeted victims tend to be interchangeable or at utter randomness. The typical location where thrill crimes take place is at a location where the victims congregate. Reactive crimes or defensive crimes are crimes committed by those in which the offender feels threatened by outsiders encroaching on their community, means of livelihood, or way of life. The goal of defensive crimes is to protect homes, schools, neighborhoods under attack by outsiders; the offenders feel threatened and as a result feel the need to become defensive. As in thrill crimes, defensive crimes are usually committed by a group of influential peers. Offenders tend to target individual or set of individuals where the victims are aware that their particular situation precipitated the attack and that they could be easily attacked again. Defensive crimes