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.
Wadsworth
Cengage Learning
It is sad that hate crimes still exist. I have experienced similar issues when I was in the military. One would think by now that all people would understand that if we stand together as one we are stronger. I believe that these issues still exist for several reasons. One being that people fear what they do not understand. That fear causes them to react to violently. The CRS was developed with the Civil rights movement of 1964 to help battle these crimes. It is the only federal agency under the department of defense that will help states with these hate crimes. The CRS responds to request from communities and law enforce agencies. They will send out trained personnel to act as mediators and provide assistance and education to help prevent these crimes from occurring.The CRS doesn't have any power of arrest and does not impose solutions. They are required to work with confidence and with out publicity. I find this to be another issue. I think by making people aware of what has happened it will bring to light exactly how hate crimes are affecting our society. Proper education in schools, colleges, and communities helps decrease the number of these attacks. I use to hear of these attacks often but they involved school age children. In areas where these crimes flourish it should be mandatory to make it a part of education.
ReplyDeleteClaudine: You have raised very good points in your blog on hate crimes. Professor Taylor
ReplyDelete