Hate Crimes

Many people don’t consider hate crimes as apart of unfair treatment of human rights.  Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law states that hate crimes violate the victim's civil rights and that is motivated by hostility to the victim's race, religion, creed, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender.  If one looks at the first part of the definition, it states that a crime that violate the victim’s civil rights. Today's civil rights deals with deal with any of the civil liberties guaranteed by theU.S. Amendments.  So in other words hate crimes goes against the Amendments by targeting race, religion or other factors. Are there still hate crimes happening in society since the Civil Rights Movement?

According to the Do You Know How To Be Safe?, a brochure passed out by California State University Sacramento Department of Public Safety (Sac State Police Department), it gives facts and the signs of hate crimes that may have been committed as well as other safety information.  The facts are from the 2003 Attorney General’s Hate Crime Report which states “that 55% of hate crimes in 2000 were racially motivated, 16% were motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation and 69% of those victims were specifically anti-male homosexual bias” (Sac State 7).  Most of crimes could take place at victims’ homes, highways, schools, and colleges. These facts are relevant because they show that there are still hate crimes in society.  There are no facts that are excluded because race and color coincide with each other due to some people's belief that one’s color deals with their race.  However, most people are aware that this is not true.

Most of the hate crimes may have been committed if the victim was selected by the perpetrator because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, and gender.  These groups are known as “protected classes” (Sac State 7). Other factors include written or oral comments of the perpetrator that indicates their bias; date of incident coincides with a significant day of the protected classes; the differences of race or religion of the victim and perpetrator; and organized hate group activity in the area.  Sac State Police Department's only bias is when crimes go unnoticed, then no one could be punished so they try to prevent all crimes and let all students, professors, and others that are on campus for no reason of how to be safe.  The author is consistent with the facts for argument of safety. The author’s value is the safety of people on campus as well as at home and everywhere they are at.  People are trying to pass legislation for these hate crimes.

               

There are argument for and against hate crime legislation.  According to B.A. Robinson, a writer for a Religious website, the opposition of hate crime legislation argues that federal hate crime legislation would increase federal government participation in law enforcement.  But for those in favor of the legislation, they state that increased federal involvement in hate crime prosecution would be beneficial and sometimes local prejudices prevent extremists who target specific groups from receiving a proper trial and sentence (Robinson 2009).  These are just two of many arguments about hate crime laws.  I believe that hate crimes still exist and that we should increase federal involvement so everyone does not have to live in fear.  Hate crimes in America have shifted from African Americans to Mexicans, Muslims, and homosexuals who want to marry.

References

Hate crimes. (N.D.).Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law. Retrieved February 19, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hate crimes

Robinson, B.A. "Hate Crime Law Arguments Pro and Con. Civil Rights Concerns." ReligiousTolerance.org by the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. 29 Apr. 2009.     Web. 19 Feb. 2011. http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_hat5.htm.

Sacramento State. Do You Know How To Be Safe? Sacramento: Sacramento State. Print.