...Hate crimes will likely continue to exist in our society based on the socio-economic factors that influence the nature of these crimes. Hate crimes have long been a problem in American society. This paper will look at some incidents of hate crimes and how they are classified. In this paper, I will also explore who the perpetrators are and how socio-economic factors affect the types of motives that are responsible for these crimes. I will also examine how the legislature chooses which prejudices they want to associate with hate crimes. In order to understand hate crimes, there are a number of factors that you must consider and understand. Primarily, you must first understand what a hate crime is and how it is classified. When considering both crime and law, hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a person or group because of their perceived social group. This could be racial, religious, sexually orientated or gender based. The term “hate crime” generally refers to criminal acts that are motivated by a perpetrators conscious or unconscious prejudices. While there are many different classifications of hate crimes, racist anti-black bias is the most frequently reported hate crime motivation in the United States. Of the 8,208nhate crimes reported to the FBI in 2011, 48% were race related- 70% having an anti-black bias. Hate crimes are classified based on whether the crime is motivated by the victims actual or perceived personal characteristics. It must be prove that the perpetrator...
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...HATE CRIME A hate crime is defined as any wrongdoing committed against a specific group of people. A type of prejudice, hate crimes are directed at a group of individuals because of their religion, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, or any other significant characteristic. Here are some basic facts on hate crimes: * Hate crimes have been occurring since ancient civilization, like the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. * 6,222 hate crime incidents involving 7,254 offenses were reported in 2011 alone. * Every hour in the United States, a hate crime is committed against another individual or group. * Half of all the hate crimes in the nation are committed by people between the ages of 15 and 24. * At least eight African Americans, three white people, three gay people, three Jewish people, and one Latino person are victim to hate crimes every day. Hate crimes have been occurring in the US since it was founded, festering in groups like the Klu Klux Klan. The term ‘hate crime’ did not enter the nation’s vocabulary until the early 1980’s—around the time when groups like the Skinheads launched a wave of bias-related crime. The FBI began investigating these hate crimes as early as World War I, when the Klu Klux Klan was at its height, marching in Washington DC and murdering both white and black people with impunity. However, hate crime legislation was not introduced in the House or Senate until the 1980s. In 1990, the Hate Crimes Statistics...
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...Hate Crimes in American Society in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries Sample Student Research Paper Project of Sociology Table of Contents I. Thesis Statement…………………………………………….………….....Page 4 II. Introduction and Summary………………………………….………….....Page 4 III. Literature Review………………………………………………………....Page 6 IV. Methods………………………………………………………….......….. Page 16 V. Socio-Historical Analysis………………………………………………. .Page 18 A. 20th Century 1. Lynching 2. Ku Klux Klan 3. Rodney King and the Los Angeles Riots 4. Matthew Shepard B. 21st Century 1. Post 9/11 2. Jena Six VI. Cause and Effect Analysis…………………………………………… ....Page 24 A. Causes 1. Prejudice a. Stereotypes b. Scapegoats c. Presence of Hate in American Culture d. Need for Status and Power 2. Reasons for Crime a. Sending a Message b. Thrill Seeking c. Defensive B. Effects 1. Psychological Trauma 2. Undo Social Progress 3. Community Unrest 4. Threat of Retaliation VII. Descriptive Analysis……………………………………………….........Page 30 A. Description of Victims 1. Bias against a Particular Race 2. Bias against a Particular Religion 3. Bias against a Particular Sexual Orientation 4. Bias against a Particular Ethnicity/National Origin 5. Bias against a Disability B. Description of Offenses and Offenders This must be your new section? VIII. Comparative Analysis…………………………………………………. Page 36 A. United States Justice Department Definition of Hate Crime B. International Justice...
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...Hate Crimes Against African-American Tonja Charletta Cash 4/29/12 Hate Crimes Against African Americans Two African-American, 16 year old girls were walking home from a school function. They were walking through a predominately white neighborhood. One was wearing her school cheerleading outfit and the other was wearing a hoodie, and it was covering her head. Which one will be racially profiled? Hate crimes happen in small towns and large cities. They happen in every state: north, south, east, and west. They involve everything from simple graffiti to brutal murders. They may be called hate crimes, bias crimes, civil rights crimes, or ethnic intimidation. Hate crimes are crimes committed because of the race, releigion, sexual orientation, or other group memebership of the victim. The precise groups that are included in the definition of hate crime vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. African-Americans have been targeted for generations. There have been many white against black crimes, and police against black crimes. Has there been any improvement in the last 50 years? Racially motivated attacks agaist African-Americans rose more than 8% in 2008. While crimes...
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...Declaration of Independence states that “all men are created equal.” The term “Hate Crime” defined by Public Law #103-322A, a 1994 federal law, defines a hate crime as: “a crime in which the defendant intentionally selects a victim, or in the case of a property crime, the property that is the object of the crime, because of actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person.” Although this is the federal definition, each state has their own legal hate crime statues, which states what constitutes and is punishable as a hate crime in that state. Some states do not recognize hate crimes at all, yet, as it clearly states in the countries founding documents the people of this country are “one nation” and “all men are created equal.” The number of hate crimes being committed is growing in numbers. What is considered a “hate crime” today is no longer restricted to the issue of black and white, but the national standard for these crimes remains unclear. Some individuals feel that hate crime legislation or Hate Crime Laws are not only unconstitutional, but redundant and unnecessary. The writer of “Hate Crime Laws Are Unnecessary” argues that “hate crime laws, whether at the state or federal level, are not necessary” ("Hate Crime Laws Are Unnecessary"). The writer further argues that passing such laws will not prevent crimes motivated by...
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...Control theories make a little more sense to me. Reckless' containment theory says there are predispositions that make people commit crimes. He uses the terms pushes and pulls. Pushes can come from troubled psyches, or stressful circumstances outside the individual, whereas pulls can be from family, friends, etc. His point is however that these pushes and pulls are not evenly distributed between society. He recognizes these pushes and pulls but says there is more needed to completely explain. Not all youths in socially disorganized areas that are exposed to these pushes or pulls commit crimes. Hence the factor of control. He studied inner and outer containement. Inner involves a strong conscience, conventional beliefs, commitment to goals, etc. Outer containment is an array of forces that limit exposure to criminal pushes and pulls. I like this theory a lot. I think it's hard to test, because we're talking about a lot of inner questions like morals and goals. He recognizes the "pushes and pulls which can explain a lot of crime, but not all. Then he factors in these containment factors which push the theory further. I think it's very valid and important to study these types of factors, but at the same time I think it's hard to study it. All in all, I like this theory and I think it makes a lot of sense. Hirschi's a bit different with the social bond theory. He didn't attempt to explain why individuals engage in criminal acts, but rather why individuals choose to conform to conventional...
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...you can | | |source: |gather from this source? | | | | | | |What is the author’s affiliation to any organization | | | |related to the subject of the article? Does he or she have| | | |an ulterior motive? | | | | | | | |What is the author’s experience with the subject, | | | |including academic or professional credentials related to | | | |the subject of the source article? Does she or he have | | | |what it takes to understand the complexities of the | | | |subject? | | | ...
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...equality. It is set in Los Angeles, it is about social and cultural stereotypes, race, and the conflict that often ensues as a result. The movie is presented in the conflict perspective which according to Richard T. Schaefer (2009) "assumes that social behavior is best understood in terms of tension between groups over power including housing, money, access to services and political representation". Crash uses tension to the story line of each character forcing them into positions of conflict as well as dependence, and emphasizes the status of equality in America. In order to progress to a more equal society it is essential like Americans presented in the movie Crash, especially those most often seen in modern society such as stereotyping, hate crimes, etc… Schaefer defines stereotypes as "unreliable generalizations about all members of a group shows a car crash involving two police detectives and an Asian woman. You can see from the beginning of the movie that the stereotyping begins immediately when the Asian woman tells the police officer that is writing the traffic report that "Mexicans don’t know how to drive. She brakes too fast!" (Haggis, 2005) A verbal struggle ensues between the Latina police detective, who is driving and the Asian woman. RIA mocks the lady about her incorrect pronunciation of the word brake. The Asian woman demonstrates that in her mind the stereotypical Latina is a Mexican who cannot drive. In another example of stereotyping, the District Attorney's White...
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...6, 2015 Nancy Walker Hypothesis Testing Paper Criminal acts stemming from prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity-frequently referred to as “hate violence”- have increased during recent years. (Barnes & Ephross, 1994) My hypothesis is the nature of hate attacks and victim’s responses. We can date back in American history the major importance of crime as a social problem. Society in America has been increasingly concerned about this problem and the victims experience with hate. This type of crime has generated the development of a numerous variety of victim service programs and research that will focus on victims instead of giving the criminals their five seconds of fame. “Hate violence crimes are those directed against persons, families, groups, or organizations because of their racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual identities or their sexual orientation or condition of disabilities. These crimes include arson of homes, businesses, and harassment, destruction of religious property, cross burnings, personal assaults, and homicides.” (Barnes & Ephross, 1994) It could be a difficult task to estimate the current prevalence of hate violence in the United States. With the help of media sources, there is a way to keep track and be more aware of these types of crimes. Focus group meetings, individual interviews, and questionnaires would be a way of sampling victims. Victims should include black, white, and Southeast Asians. Would these...
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...Alfriz Mella Professor Gusrang Sociology 101 In today’s society, crime in the United States is no longer one dimension. Although the number of violent crimes in the United States has dropped within the last 40 years according to the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice reports, I believe that there are many factors that would determine the outcome of the fate of perpetrator. Most crimes are still committed nowadays because of one or two causes, which could be class, race, age, or gender related. This paper will summarize a crime story, and tell how the race affects the media, and the public perception of the crime. A 20 year-old active duty solider named, Tevin Geike, was stabbed to death last Sunday morning, October 6, by his fellow Army men, who are African-American, while walking at a block in Lakewood. The victim, who at the time was with some companions, an all-white male, were on their way back from the club at 2 a.m., to the Joint Base Lewis-McChord, after celebrating his upcoming discharge from the military. A vehicle carrying the accused suddenly stopped by, and the men in the car yelled at the victim and his friends, and began name calling and hurling racial slurs such as “cracker”. When Geike retaliated by shouting back at the group in the car, that’s when trouble started. The men in the car turned around their vehicle towards where the victim and his friends were walking, got out of the car, and after a verbal confrontation, one of them stabbed the 20-year...
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...Research Study #1: Victim experiences in hate crimes based on sexual orientation By: Herek, Gregory M., Cogan, Jeanine C., Gillis, J. Roy2 Universities Affiliated: University of California, Davis., University of Toronto Abstract: Using interview data from a convenience sample of 450 lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults, the varieties of victim experiences in hate crimes based on sexual orientation are described. Most crimes were perpetrated in public settings by one or more strangers, but victimization also occurred in other locales, and perpetrators included neighbors, coworkers, and relatives. In deciding whether a crime was based on their sexual orientation, victims tended to rely primarily on contextual cues and perpetrators’ explicit statements. Victims’ concerns about police bias and public disclosure of their sexual orientation were important factors in deciding whether to report antigay crimes, as were beliefs about the crime’s severity and the likelihood that perpetrators would be punished. Reflection: The method used in this research study is the interview method. They collected a sample size of 450 willing volunteers (224 men: 204 gay, 20 bisexual and 226 women: 202 lesbian, 24 bisexual). They all were asked to describe their experiences with hate crimes and there was a split between people who knew for sure they were attacked by biased views and those who knew their attacker did not have any biased views against them. Many volunteers felt they were most likely...
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...Contemporary Hate Crimes, Law Enforcement, and the Legacy of Racial Violence Ryan D. King University at Albany-SUNY Robert D. Baller University of Iowa This article investigates the association between past lynchings (1882 to 1930) and contemporary law enforcement responses to hate crimes in the United States. While prior research indicates a positive correlation between past levels of lynching and current social control practices against minority groups, we posit an inverse relationship for facets of social control that are protective of minorities. Specifically, we hypothesize that contemporary hate crime policing and prosecution will be less vigorous where lynching was more prevalent prior to 1930. Analyses show that levels of past lynching are associated with three outcome variables germane to hate crime policing and prosecution, but the effect of lynching is partly contingent on the presence of a minority group threat. That is, past lynching combined with a sizeable black population largely suppresses (1) police compliance with federal hate crime law, (2) police reports of hate crimes that target blacks, and in some analyses (3) the likelihood of prosecuting a hate crime case. Our findings have implications for research on law and intergroup conflict, historical continuity in the exercise of state social control, and theories that emphasize minority group threat. Steven F. Messner University at Albany-SUNY onflict theories of crime and criminal law posit that the...
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...Despite the fact that there are a variety of various media sources, it is commonly agreed upon that the media is biased; however, the opinion of how it is biased is often based on the leanings and beliefs of individuals rather than everyone as a whole. The most common bias discussed seems to be that of ideological bias, more specifically whether the media is more conservative or liberal in its coverage. While there are undoubtedly sources, such as Fox News, that tend to be conservatively biased, it seems that the vast majority of the media today is liberally biased. The media is ideologically biased in favor of liberal coverage in...
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...or marginalize or | | |insult people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against. | Part II Write a 150- to 250-word response to each of the following questions: • How is discrimination different from prejudice and stereotyping? Discrimination is the denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups because of prejudice or for other arbitrary reasons where prejudice is a negative attitude toward an entire category of people. Stereotypes are unreliable generalizations about all members of a group that do not take individual differences into account, which is similar to that of prejudice. Although prejudice and discrimination are related concepts they are not the same. Discrimination involves behavior that excludes members of a group from certain rights, opportunities, or privileges, where prejudice involves attitudes, thoughts, and beliefs, not actions. Stereotypes have shown the willingness of people to...
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...be a hate crime where a specific person is picked out for victimization on the basis of their race or skin color. Domestic abuse case is also an example where the husband or boyfriend targets his wife or girlfriend. Domestic violence typically occurs within the household involving spouses or former spouses or some people in a current relationship. This is even possible among blood relatives. Regarding hate crime, this could be directed at a person or even property, the motivation stemming from the offender’s bias towards the victim. Secondary Victimization: Impersonal Target – involves an impersonal target being victimized. This could consist of a business or corporation victimizing an individual. An example of this could be a customer using their credit card in a department store only to find out that their personal information was sold out to a third party. Also, a person could use their social security number in applying for a loan only to find out that such information was sold to a third part and the customer is now being harassed to pay a loan that they may not have received to begin with. Secondary victimization involves an indirect act stemming from an organization to the victim. Tertiary Victimization: Public is victim – involves the general public as being the victim. An example of this could be a public office holder embezzling public funds by, maybe, taking a personal trip to an island and charging all the expenses to his office, though the trip is not related to his...
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