Hate Crime

                Hate Crime has plagued the United States throughout the years.  Consisting of offenses that are motivated by prejudice towards certain social groups, perpetrators display acts of this crime using violence that include physical assault, vandalism, arson or murder.  Perpetrators target ones’ ethnicity, gender identity, religion or sexual orientation to name a few.   An estimated of 293,000 violent and property hate crime victimizations occurred in 2012 against persons age 12 and older residing in households in the United States (Bureau of Justice Statistics, (2014).  According to Southern Poverty Law Center, there are 939 active hate groups in the United States (Brunker, Alba, Bill, 2014).  These groups became more active when President Obama took office and has decrease in accidents over the years.  Although there has been a decrease in accidents, hate crimes still occur throughout the United States with religion crimes in lead.  Some hate groups include; KKK, Neo-Nazi, Racist Skinhead, Black Separatist, and Cristian Identity. 

                America has come a long way within the boundaries of hate crimes; however, hate crimes still exist in today’s society.  This part of American history is sad and has always been a black shadow in the younger generation.  Dating back to the days of lynching and burning cross, there are groups such as Civil Right Movement in which hate crime has become their number 1 priority.  Not only are individuals affected by hate crimes, but families are also affected.  Hate crimes live with a person throughout the years and it affects the up and coming generation through the older generation imbedding bad ethics leading to repeated cycles.  In today’s society, it’s not as easy to get away with hate crime; whether it’s against ethnicity, gender identity, religion or sexual orientation, this type of behavior is unacceptable and has nowhere in our society.

 

National Institute of Justice. (2010). Hate crime

                Retrieved from www.justice.gov/crs/pubs/htecrm.htm

 Pollock, Jocelyn (2012). Ethical dilemmas and decisions in criminal justice. (7^th ed.) Belmont, CA:

                Wadsworth Cengage Learning

 

 

       Capital Punishment has been an item of debate for more than four hundred years.  Dating back as far as the fifth century B.C., the death penalty was displayed in actions of crucifixions, drowning, burning individuals alive, and beating individuals to death.  After exercising these methods for a long period of time, a new method of hanging became the major and frequent used method of execution.  Executions in America began in 1608 in the Jamestown colony of Virginia when Captain George Kendall was executed due to suspicions of being a spy for Spain.  As time passed, laws in reference to capital punishment varied from colony to colony with executions for crimes as small as killing chickens with Britain attempting to reform capital punishment for all crimes except treason and murder.  As Americans continued to debate the death penalty, high profile cases initiated questions of constitutional rights, morals, and cruel and unusual punishment.  Along with the said, some opponents expressed the death penalty as an exercise which was highly favored among minority defendants or poor individuals who were unable to afford a lawyer.  Statistics have shown that race remains an issue in the forefront of America’s Capital Punishment debate; indicating who lives or who dies by execution.  
       The death penalty exists in 34 states in the United States of America.  Currently only 16 states actually perform executions which are carried out by lethal injection.  Right now, more than 3,500 inmates sit on Death Row in America.  Most are poor, and a disproportionate number are people of color.  In addition, most had legal representation that were inadequate and incompetent. 


Reference

Connors, Paul G. (2007). Capital punishment.

Friedman, Lauri S. (2011). The death penalty.