What is the Meaning of Hate Crimes?

What causes the increase in hate crimes? Hate crimes are one that targets an individual, group, organization toward which the perpetrator feels prejudice on the basis of a real or perceived difference in race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or national origin. Hate groups still exist from the oldest and most well-known the Ku Klux Klan, to the newest hate group organization the New Black Panther. The government and its citizens promote tolerance through public education and legislation. Hate crimes have become one of the main leading issues in the U.S. and need to be one of the government's top priorities. The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), examines the influence of the victim's race in reporting hate crimes to the police. The NCVS can analyze how the victim's race influences the likelihood of reporting, the survey can explore the differences between reporting racial and non-racial hate crimes. According to the survey, the results indicate that minority victimizations are less likely to be reported for both racial and non-racial hate crimes and failure to report tot he police has serious consequences for the victim and the criminal justice system.

In 2006, 8,000 hate crime incidents were reported. The Bureau of Justice Statistics report found that over 200,000 individuals are victims of hate crimes each year and out of the other reported crimes, hate crimes were reported to be the least likely to not be reported by hate crime victims. Hate crimes also share characteristics that distinguish them from parallel offenses, or unbiased violent crime. Hate crimes against homosexuals. Hate crimes consist of assaults, sexual assaults, sexual harassments, and stalking were predictive of sexual orientation hate crimes. Hate crimes are an important social problem in contemporary U.S. society because it has been argued that hate crimes substantially impact the lives of the individual victims and the larger social context in which they occur and are bias-motivated aggressiveness constitutes a public health risk. The inclusion of sexual orientation in the federal hate crime law was rejected by the U.S. Senate in the late 1990s even while hate crimes targeting gays and lesbians increased during this same period. There is also very little information about known risk factors for hate-motivated crimes even in the case of race, where skin color and other physical features are relevant, no quantitative estimate exist that separate the impact of a race from other related risk factors.Is there a need for hate crime legislation?

Tougher hate crime laws are necessary to discourage racism and prejudice, yet opponents believe that tougher laws against hate crimes would infringe on free speech rights. There are many pros and cons when it comes to hate crime law arguments and concerns about these laws. For those who are against the idea of hate crime laws, they believe that the legislation is not needed because every crime the authorities cover is already illegal under existing state and local laws. They believe that the law is unfair because American justice is based on the principle that everyone is treated identically yet if hate crime laws are passed, perpetrators of two identical crimes would receive different sentences (depending on the characteristic of the victim. The opposers think that there is a political vehicle for the homosexual activist. If hate-motivated crimes against gays and lesbians are recognized in the law, then homosexuals would have a stronger moral claim to equal treatment in society and it will advance their claim that homosexual behavior is normal and natural.

Last but not least, federal hate crime legislation would increase federal government participation in law enforcement.Those who are for hate crime laws, they believe that legislation is needed to protect group under the law that will make the public aware that the group is vulnerable, extensively victimized in past and needs protection. They also believe that the law is fair because hate crimes have become more serious than any conventional crime because it abuses more than the immediate victim and is also a characteristic of a terrorist attack. Everyone needs protection from hate crimes and those who are for hate crime laws concluded that the law would not limit freedom of speech.Do we believe in free speech or not? Currently, the government is trying to combat what it sees as rising anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism means hostility to or prejudice against Jews. A country that ends up shutting down free speech often starts with the best of intentions. One man's hate crime is another man's conscientious expression of dissent, which lets a government that has already chosen sides to sort out which is which is a dangerous idea. Hate crimes that entail violence, threats of violence, or the destruction of property are acts that would be criminal even absent any motivation based on a bias against a protected group. Hate crime law results in few convictions and lots of disappointment.

In Texas, the tiny number of successful prosecutions leave both victims and lawmakers questioning state's commitment to punishing hate. For example, Lance Reyna was assaulted in a school bather in 2010. Reyna, who is transgender and gay, was a student at Houston Community College when an attacker held a knife to his throat, called him a queer' in a falsetto voice, then kicked and beat him and left him on the bathroom floor. A more recent incident, John Gaspari was walking home from a bar in Houston at around 3 a.m. on Valentine's Day 2015. He was three blocks from home when a car suddenly swerved onto the sidewalk, trying to run him over. Three men jumped out of the car and shouted, Get the fag! They tackled, punched, and kicked Gaspar. Then one of them pumped two bullets into him and left him unconscious on the side of the road.Prejudice people believe that hateful speeches are not the same as violence, because of this they can use freedom of speech to their advantage and can create anxiety about terrorism and national security. Hateful speeches can encourage a full-on massacre and can abuse others mentally and physically to others who are affected by it. Hate crime laws are necessary to discourage racism and prejudice because people who are part of a hate crime believes that they are above the law and cannot be stopped.

Hate crime is any crime committed which is motivated by bias or based on the victim's perceived membership in a specific group, such as race, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religious beliefs and is intended to induce fear and cause psychological and/or physical harm (sometimes because of hate speech, yet hate speeches are not considered a hate crime).

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