CJ 202 Term Paper - Grade: B+ PDF

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A term paper on the importance of hate crime laws....

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Running head: IMPORTANCE OF HATE CRIME LAWS 1

IMPORTANCE OF HATE CRIME LAWS 2 Abstract This report explains what a hate crime is using definitions from sources and the definition broken down by author. It also states recent statistics of hate crimes documented by the Uniform Crime Report. It also overviews the similar hate crimes laws before there were actual hate crime laws which then leads into the beginning of hate crime laws and discusses the specifics of the laws. The report covers how many states became involved in passing hate crime laws and which organizations were responsible for the lobbying of hate crimes laws. The four motives of hate crimes and the typical offender will be discussed along with examples of the motives that have been in the media. The victims and what we can do to prevent hate crimes in the future will also be discussed.

IMPORTANCE OF HATE CRIME LAWS 3 The Importance of Hate Crime Laws

What are Hate Crimes? The definition of a hate crime may vary and can be confusing, according to the book ‘’Hate Crimes: Causes, Controls, and Controversies’’ the definition of a hate crime is a criminal act that is motivated, at least in part, by the group affiliation of the victim. This definition can be confusing, even though the author of the book claims in to be the simplest definition of hate crimes. The definition is not clear, preferably the definition of a hate crime in my opinion is an unlawful act upon a victim due to their race, gender, religion, ethnicity, disability or sexual orientation. This definition specifies what ‘’groups’’ we are applying hate crimes to, the book definition doesn’t specify what group of people we are talking about. The word ‘’group’’ leaves an unclear understanding for a person uneducated in criminal justice. Uniform Crime Report In 2007 the FBI collected hate crime data from 2,025 law enforcement agencies across the United States of America. There were 7,624 related crimes involving 9,006 offenses which were committed by 6,962 separate people which affected 7,632 victims. Over half of these crimes were motivated by racial hatred. Religious bias was reported to be the second most hate crimes which made up 16.4%. 69.3% of racially motivated hate crimes were against black victims, and 18.4% were against white victims. 68.4% of religious motivated hate crimes were against Jewish victims. 9.5% fell under the category as ‘’other religion’’ and 9% were Islamic, 5% fell under Catholics, multiple religions, Protestants and atheist/agnostics. There were 82 offenses against disabled people, with 62 offenses carried out on mentally disabled individuals and 20 on those with physical disabilities. (crimemuseum.org) Hate Crime Laws. The backbone of hate crime laws would be the Civil Rights Acts of 1871 which permits the federal government to prosecute people who have deprived others of their civil rights, either in concert with other perpetrators or in their capacity as government employees. The Civil Rights Acts were in consequence of the violence of black Southerners which became a serious problem and made Northerners worry if the Southern authorities would

IMPORTANCE OF HATE CRIME LAWS 4 even punish the white people for attacking the blacks. A third law was passed after the Rodney King incident in California which allows a person to sue a state or local government employee in federal court when that employee interferes with his or her constitutional rights. 18 U.S.C. 245 was also passed about 100 years after the Civil Rights Acts which criminalizes interfering with another person’s enjoyment of certain activities or benefits when the interference is due to the person’s race, color, religion, or national origin. These activities generally include going to school, being employed, traveling, and eating in restaurants. In 1981 the Anti-Defamation League paired up with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the National Institute for Prejudice and Violence, and the Southern Poverty Law center to lobby states to pass the model ethnic intimidation statute. It was eventually passed and contained four provisions. The first of these, Institutional Vandalism, was aimed primarily at people who targeted cemeteries, community centers, and places of worship. This provision was not a new idea, most states already had a law similar to this but it made it clearer and easier for more states to follow along. The second provision would find anyone guilty of an intimidation if he or she violated some existing criminal law and if he or she committed the crime because of the victim’s group. The model statute is also the reason why hate crimes have a penalty enhancer, it essentially bumps the seriousness of the crime by one degree. The ADL later changed the name to Bias-Motivated Crimes in 1994. The third provision of the model statute creates a civil cause of action so that victims of institutional vandalism and bias crimes may sue their attackers. Lastly the model statute provides for collection of law enforcement data on bias crimes and for specialized training of police officers. The ADL had a big part in Hate Crime laws, soon after their model statute most of the states followed along a based their laws off the model statute, while others based their laws

IMPORTANCE OF HATE CRIME LAWS 5 directly from scratch. Wyoming is the only state that did not pass any hate crime provisions. Most other states followed the penalty enhancer for hate crimes, states followed the institutional vandalism, 28 states have mandatory collection of hate crime data, 14 states have specialized training for law enforcement based on hate crimes, and 32 states authorize civil action. The Offender/Motive. Anyone can be a hate crime offender, but the typical hate crime offender is a young white male who does not come from an impoverished background, with little to no previous contact with the criminal justice system and does not belong to an organized hate group. Every year the statistics show majority of hate crime offenders are white males. As stupid as it sounds, the most common hate crimes are practiced out of thrill. Usually the type of people looking for a random thrill because they’re bored are young males, hence why statistically they are the number one offender. Sadly their thrill is at someone else’s expense. Defense crimes count as about a quarter of hate crimes. It is considered defense because instead of going out of your territory to seek a victim like thrill seeking, you happen to come across the situation in your territory. The rarest type of hate crimes are mission crimes. In a mission crime it is usually one person going out to kill a particular group of people who they believe is evil. Examples of this type of hate crime are Marc Lepine who killed 14 women in a classroom, racist skinheads Daniel Cowart and Paul Schlesselman who were plotting to kill president Obama in 2008, and Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols who bombed the federal building in Oklahoma in 1995 which killed 168 people. The final type of hate crimes are retaliatory crimes, which are those in which a person hears a report or rumor of a hate incident against their own group and takes revenge by committing a crime against a member of the initial supposed offending group, this accounts for

IMPORTANCE OF HATE CRIME LAWS 6 8% of all hate crimes. An example of this is in 1991 a Jew in Brooklyn accidently drove off the road and killed two black kids, following the incident two young black males stabbed and killed a Jew because a rumor spread that the Jewish ambulance company didn’t react in time to care for the black kids because they were black. The Victims. Hate crimes are severely under reported which makes it difficult to find out who the true victims of these crimes are. The reason of under reporting is usually because of the bad relationship between the group and the police, linguistic barriers make it hard for victims to report crimes to the police and they also may feel voiceless in our society if they’re a small minority group. Hate crimes against blacks, Jews, and gays continues because of prejudice. It makes sense that they are the largest victims today because they are also the largest minority groups and have a history of being discriminated against. The victims of hate crimes will face physical and emotional harm. Victims will feel unwanted in society and fear going out in public due to the harm that was put on them or the damage to their property. Conclusion. I believe hate crimes will always be a part of our society. There will always be friction between opposing groups of people, in a way it is a part of human nature. There are ways that we can suppress the amount of hate crimes. Educating our youth about human diversity will definitely lower the hate crime rates when they grow up because most of them will grow up with the understanding to respect others regardless of their race, gender, religion, ethnicity, or disability. Psychology is the huge part in why people commit hate crimes, these people may have not been raised by their parents to respect everyone. There are many kids out there who have prejudice parents and the kids take on the belief that their parents raised them. I feel hate crimes

IMPORTANCE OF HATE CRIME LAWS 7 would have lower rates in highly mixed cultural areas, not like Lakewood New Jersey where yes there are many different types of people but they are all secluded from each other and don’t necessarily communicate with each other. In an area where the different cultures are building relationships with one another I can see them having more understanding of one another and not hating on each other or committing crimes on each other for the specific reason that they are a part of that group. In a situation like that, when somebody then commits a hate crime they will be discouraged from ever doing that again versus in an all white community for example if someone goes and throws a window through the black families home because they’re black they might be encouraged by their peers and told things like, ‘’Yeah those niggers deserve it for moving in here.’’ In the mixed community the attacker will probably hear things from his peers like, ‘’Hey you can’t do that we live with all these people we can’t start problems with them like that.’’ In the end it all comes down to educating our youth and even our adults on how to respect all members of our society.

IMPORTANCE OF HATE CRIME LAWS 8 References Gerstenfeld, P. B. (2013). Hate Crimes: Causes, Controls, and Controversies.

National Uniform Crime Report...