Hate Crime

Hate Crime

Introduction

Hate crimes, also known under the jurisdiction of law and order as biased crimes, are usually criminal offenses that are committed against individuals based on cultural, social or physical biases. The crimes are also known as bias-motivated violence. They might include injury, assault or murder against another individual because of certain differences he might exhibit from the norm or specifically, the differences from the perpetrator. They don't always include bodily harm; they might include damage done to property, harassment, bullying, insults or abuse, graffiti or hate mail against the victim (Stotzer, 2007).

Thesis statement

“Hate crimes date back to centuries before in which victim is often chosen due to his individuality or allegiance towards a particular social grouping, race, religion, culture, sexual orientation, class, disability, nationality, class, sex, age or any other distinguishing factor.”

Discussion

Hate Crimes over the centuries have been committed against certain races based on their skin color or on their religious differences. The records of history of such crimes are older than the history of the USA itself. There are different reasons behind hate crimes such as:

To desecrate cemeteries, spiritual sites or monuments dedicated to specific population groups.

Damage to private property or business to members of ethnic communities, linguistic, religious, political, social, disabled, etc.

Threats, intimidation and verbal abuse of persons because of their differences (color, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, political views, social class, disability, etc.).

Physical violence against people because of their differences (color, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, political views, social class, disability, etc.).

Impacts of hate crimes

Hate crimes have severe penalties on the psyche of the victim if the attack is not fatal (Monique, 2003).. Followed are the consequences of hate crimes on different segments of the society:

Individual Effects: This includes the affective disturbances and the psychological effects, repercussions that damage the victim's self-esteem and identity. These are directly proportional to the degree of violence of the crime committed against them.

Group Effects: Such crimes incite terror in the members of the whole group to which the victim belonged. They create a sense of vulnerability amongst the group members and they start developing a sense of paranoia.

Other Effects: It creates a negative impact on the sister groups of the target group. For instance if in a country, a religious minority member has been a victim of hate crime, aside from the whole community who belongs to the religion, other religious minority members might also feel vulnerable and exposed. The society in their ...