Hate Crimes: The Insufficiently Recognized Problem
Throughout this country’s history, hate crimes have taken place, either by known groups who hate or, most commonly, individuals inspired by hate. Family members of hate crime perpetrators do not understand and realize its existence or what it does. The crimes committed were at first considered righteous, considering any races other than Anglo-Saxon inferior; justifying these acts of violence in the name of progress and the nation accepted this until recent years. Although the widespread practice of persecuting the “inferior” races is not common, today there are still crimes committed in the name of hate, revenge, and lust. These crimes go against the very thing so many lost their lives fighting for: natural born rights. Hate crimes are serious and well-documented problems but remain inadequately recognized Hate crimes are classified as ethnic intimidation and are defined as any crime against a person including arson, criminal mischief and other property destruction, criminal trespass or harassment by communication or address that is committed with malicious intention toward the race, color, religion, or national origin of another. Hate crimes send a message that certain groups of people are not welcome and unsafe in a part
As hate crimes have risen in number during the past five years, many state governments have attempted to prevent such crimes by passing laws called bias laws. These laws make a crime that is motivated by hatred based on the victim’s race, religion, ethnic background, or sexual orientation, a more serious crime than such an act would ordinarily be. Many people believe that these laws violate the criminal’s freedom of speech. Many hate group members say that freedom of speech is the right to say or write or publish one’s thoughts, or to express one’s self; they also say that this right is guaranteed to all Americans. Nevertheless, people and organizations that are against these hate groups ask themselves if the first amendment includes and protects all form of expression. However, the question remains: “Does freedom of speech mean freedom to hate?” The number of hate crimes committed daily is unknown because many hate crimes are either never reported or go unnoticed. Nevertheless, sometimes the victims of those acts go overboard and get greedy, suing the criminal for a hate crime when in truth the crime had no race, gender, or religious bias whatsoever. The petty crimes are getting out of proportion and the true reasons for committing the crime becomes irreverent and gets the label of a hate crime. The true crimes of hate become one of many and the nation gets confused of what is truly a hate crime. The dictionary defines a hate crime as "any of various crimes... when motivated by hostility to the victim as a member of a group (as one based on color, creed, gender, or sexual orientation)." With this definition, you could make almost any crime committed against different genders, races, skin color, or even sexual orientation into a hate crime.
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Approximate Word count = 1190
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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