Penalties on Hate Crimes

    There are many people that believe there should be harsher penalties for hate crimes.  Others believe that what our legal system does serve justice to the victims of hate crimes.  For instance the beating of Rodney King could be semi viewed as a hate crime when he was brutally beat by four police officers and received a settlement of 1 million dollars in the early 1990s. There are many horrendous cases that the public hear everyday about individual hate crimes done on other human beings. For example: "After being robbed and beaten, Matthew Shepard, a gay student in Wyoming, was tied like a scarecrow to a wooden fence and left to die. He did" (Wellman, 2006, p.62).  These stories that are published in our newspaper each day really makes me want to reevaluate if America has truly grown out of its era of intolerance.
           What most people do not know is that their are strict guidelines on what qualifies as a hate crime. "In order for an offense to qualify as a hate crime, the perpetrator must choose the victim (at least in part) because of her membership in the targeted group" (Wellman, 2006, p.63).  It has to clearly show that the crime was done out of hate for the other individual.  This is where in the courtroom the situation can get sticky when you try to charge the perpetrator with a hate crime.  The overall public, however, want their to be more done for the punishment of specific crimes.  "Although national polls that have been conducted in recent years uncovered general support for hate crime laws, there is no evidence that this support translates into support for the actual sentence enhancements,mandatory minimums, and others tools that are mandated under such laws" (Cohen & Steen,2004,p.1-2).  If the overall public is demanding more attention be brought to this maybe if some people voice their opinions the government will listen.
           There is many complexities over the hate.  Should the individual be blamed if he has prejudice against somebody or should it be more geared towards the actual organizations geared towards hate.  "Individuals who commit hate crimes often appear to have internalized scapegoating frames and narratives, but seldom are they members of organized supremacist groups" (Berlet,2003-2004,p.145).  This is true, but most of the time the individuals are brought up from someone that teaches them that hatred and those individuals could belong to supremacist groups, so they are indirectly affected.  "

We need to place the study of organized hate groups in the context of the larger study of systems of oppression that generate hate" (Berlet,2003-2004,p.145).  I agree with this statement, but overall there needs to be more looked into with the consequences of committing hate crimes, rather than us Americans trying to cease that they no longer exist. 

References:

Wellman, C. (2006). A defense of stiffer penalties for hate crimes . Hypatia, 21(1), 62-63.


Cohen, M, & Steen, S. (2004). Assessing the public's demand for hate crime penalties. Justice Quarterly, 21(1), 1-2.


Berlet, C. (2003-2004). Hate, oppression, repression, and the apocalyptic style: facing complex questions and challenges . Journal of Hate Studies, 3(1), 145.

Views on Hate Crimes

   When most people hear the word hate crime they automatically assume that it is involving something physical, but verbal usage.  This is just one of the many different views that America has on hate crimes.  For instance usage of  the "N" word in our culture.  For African American the "N" word is used frequently among African Americans, because they feel that they are not using it in a derogatory way unlike Whites who ultimately use it in a racial backlash context.  "Since 2002, Randall Kennedy has served as an expert witness about the use of the N-word in approximately a half-dozen court cases" (Jones & Parks, 2008,1312).  This,however, is not enough to charge someone with a hate crime.  This side of hate crimes is still being pursued to see if legal actions should be taken.
     Some people actually believe that people involved in hate crimes should be administrated harder punishments if they already have prejudice for the victim of the crime, because they had two intentions to gain something out of the crime and to exploit the other person.  "I contend that the enhanced punishment of opportunistic

bias crimes is justified because tbe advantages tbat perpetrators obtain by

committing tbem are greater tban the advantages obtained from parallel crimes commited without bias motivation" (Woods,2008,p.491-492).  I found this statement quite interesting, because I never had taken account of how this could be very justifiying to the victim of a violent hate crime.  "In terms of harmful effects, I contend that opportunistic bias crimes warrant additional punishment because such crimes

perpetuate the belief that certain victims are easier crime targets as a result of

disadvantages stemming from their group membership" (Woods,2008,p.492).  This statement could also very much be true, because they may act on a certain individual, because they are more vulnerable.
       Not many people would agree with that reasoning of thinking, but it is definitely being put into perspective.  There has even been questioning on trying to adapt hate crimes, so that they do not violate citizens First Amendment rights.  "First Amendment concerns are implicatedwhenever police and prosecutors seek to use evidence of perpetrators' speech, expressive actions, or membership in organizations to prove the requisite animus" (Coker,2011,p.275).  I can see how this could cause some backlash,because you have to fair to everyone within a trial even the commiters of the crime. However, "Not only are hate crimesmore likely to involve physical assaults and result in serious physical injury to the victim, but their emotional and psychological impact on victims is also more severe, as such crimes attack the "core of
[victims'] identity." (Coker,2011,p.275).  This is a aspect of hate crime that many people feel to leave out is the emotional toll that is put on the victim.  Hopefully this is more looked into as hate crimes prevalence and severity becomes more aware.


































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































References:


Jones, S, & Parks, G. (2008). "nigger" a critical race realist analysis of the n-word within hate crimes. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 98(4), 1312.

Woods, J. (2008). Taking the "hate" out of the hate crimes:applying unfair advantage theory to justify the enhanced punishment of opportunistic bias crimes. UCLA Law Review, 56(2), 491-492

Coker, C. (2011). Hope-fulfilling or effectively chilling? reconciling the hate crimes prevention act with the first amendment. Vanderbilt Law Review, 64(1), 275.

9/11 Hate Crimes

     Since September 11,2001 a lot of Americans have been very skeptical about, who we let enter this country.  When the Twin Towers got attacked our country immediately went to hating the enemy in the Middle East.  Many Americans claimed that anybody of Middle Eastern descent could be a potential terrorist and they were definitely not afraid to show their hatred to them.  There was a sharp rise in hate crimes towards Middle-Easterns.
      There was defintely an increase in hate crimes targeted to people of Islamic faith post 9/11. "The FBI report found that incidents targeting people, institutions and businesses identified with the Islamic faith increased from a mere 28 in 2000 to 481 in 2001-a rise of 1,600 percent" (Abdelkarim,2003,p.51).  This obviously, because after the attack Americans felt threatened and pretty much were ignorant about the whole Islamic faith as a result of this hate escalated.
      Americans took it in their own hands to deliver what they felt was right.  Many feel that not enough was done post 9/11 for the tragedy that the country suffered.  The Hussein family had indured hate ever since the 1990s in their neighborhood with property damage being done to their house and this only escalated after September 11.  The Hussein family even went public with their outcry "By midday, TV stations and The Washington Post came to record the story of this Muslim family who has been victimized even before backlash from 9/11 made many Muslim Americans feel unsafe" (Hanley, 2007,p.53).  Even Muslims who were US citizens were being targeted just simply, because they belonged to a certain faith they were automatically associated with the terrorists of 9/11.
       Even as the story of 9/11 is being added into textbooks we are failing to leave out the mistreatment of Muslim-Amercians that occured heavily at this time. " No incidents of harassment or hate crimes against Middle Easterners and other "Middle Eastern- looking" people that were reported in the aftermath of 9/11 are mentioned, nor are bomb threats at a Muslim school in Detroit, the three hundred protesters who stormed a Chicago-area mosque, or the singling out of Arab Americans in airports" (Romanowski,2009,p.290).  These voices are being forgotten and it is sad, because they are just as much a apart of history.  It has been 10 years since September 11,2001 and although the hatred towards Muslims have died down it is still prevalant and many Americans still feel animosity towards them for what happened on that tragic day.


     


































References:


Abdelkarim, R. (2003). Surge in hate crimes followed by official u.s. targeting of muslim, arab men. The Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs, 22(3), 51-53.

Hanley, D. (2007). Muslim family endures hate crime again. The Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs, 26(8), 53.

 Romanowski, M. (2009). What you dont know can hurt you: textbook omissions and 9/11. The Clearing House, 82(6), 290-296.