Hate Crimes in the United States



Hate Crimes in the United States

Introduction

"...Until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." These simple, yet powerful words belong to one greatest men of the twentieth century. Martin Luther King Jr. uttered these very words to bring attention to the suffering and discrimination of the African American communities across the United States. Going back in time, one can see that crimes often originated because of differing races, unfortunately, as time progressed, the reasons behind crimes changed from different origins to different beliefs, cultures, religions and even sexual orientation and opinions. Such crimes are known today as hate crimes and are successfully holding back the international and domestic community from progressing into a better, safer world.

According to the United States Law, hate crimes, or bias motivated crimes, take place when the alleged perpetrators target their victims based on the opinion that their being member of a certain community with certain beliefs, is superior to the victim's. These beliefs might be racially oriented, religious beliefs, focused towards physical disabilities, class, nationality, gender, sexual orientation or identity. With that in mind, recent studies claim that on average, out of a thousand randomly chosen cases, approximately a quarter of them are tied down to hate crimes and hateful mentality. The emergence and strength of the media has brought such previously ignored facts out into the open. Today, hate crimes are not taken lightly and punishments are severe. This paper focuses on what hate crimes are, how they developed and are currently seen in the United States. The paper concludes with the corresponding laws that were introduced in an attempt to counter such incidents. Hate crimes are truly a disgrace to society and a lot needs to be done to make sure that they do not prevail to such an extent that our future generations lead suffering and unsafe lives.

What are Hate Crimes?

Hate crimes have numerous sub categories but are generally defined as crimes whose motive involves specific bias towards a specific school of thought. This school of thought is improperly believed to be superior and thus the alleged perpetrator commits crimes, often violent, against all those who oppose. Hate crimes can range from mere assault to horrendous murder and causes include a bias towards physical or personal characteristics, varying appearances, skin color, nationality or differing religious beliefs. The smallest form of a hate crime is probably bullying and is present all around us. It can be frequently seen in our schools, where our children are mentally and physically bullied every day. It can also be seen in work places and in our community. Damage to property, obsessive hate mail, graffiti and physical assault are larger and more serious forms of the crime. Incidents also exist where victims were murdered for similar reasons. It remains difficult to distinguish hate crimes from conventional crimes. Hate crimes are, usually, confirmed via background investigations into the lives of the accused individuals. Investigations also involve eyewitness reports and circumstantial ...