Hate Crime in the United States of America

Sergio Lopez

English IV 4A Mrs. Jones 16 March, 2014

Lopez I

THESIS: Information will be given on hate crime in the United States of America. Its best to know about these types of crimes before its too late because its rarely reported or spoken on but does occur on regular bases. Hate crime didnt come about until the early 1980s. Its sad how these types of crimes still occur so many years later; there are innocent people who are attacked simply because of their race, religion or sexual orientation. Based on articles, hate crime in the USA is very common and the chances to be a victim are high enough. Hate crimes are ignorant and pointless, they need to be stopped. I. Who are victims of hate crime and how A) B) C) D) II. What hate crime is Who it happens to How they are committed Percentage of different victims

Hate Crime History A) B) C) Klu Klux Klan in the south Roman Empire Adolf Hitler Genocide

Lopez II III. Causes of Hate Crime A) B) C) IV. Prejudice and ignorance Discrimination against other races Discrimination against gays

Ages of offenders and cities A) B) At what ages hate crimes are being committed In which cites and how

V.

Ways hate crimes can be reduced A) B) C) Parents teaching children to look at other races the right way Making the public aware of these crimes Showing support to victims

VI.

Consequences of committing hate crime A) B) C) A fine and a year sentence for misdemeanor cases Up to ten years in prison if firearms or other weapons are used Life in jail or death penalty if some is killed

VII.

Counter Argument

Lopez III VIII. Conclusion Hate Crime in the United States of America Done to many different people in many different ways Hate crimes are biased motivated, they're based on ethnicity, gender, language, nationality, physical appearance and sexual orientation. Hate crimes have various ways of being committed. They can be done either by physically assaulting another individual, doing damage to their property, bullying them, harassing them, verbal abusing or insulting someone. Hate crimes occur because of people who are prejudice and ignorant who cant understand that there are differences among people. A victim of hate crime is more than likely to be attacked by another individual because of their race. The most common type of hate crimes that are committed is racially motivated. While gay people are also attacked often also, hate crimes based on sexual orientation come in second. In 2012 and 2013 there were 42,236 reported hate crimes. 85% were race hate crimes, 10% were sexual orientation, 4% were disability and religion hate crimes and 1% transgender. The FBI has found that most hate crime offenders are white at 70%, a small percentage are black at 16%, very few of these offenders are multi-racial at 4%, Asians are little to none at 2% and 1% were Native Americans. It is also proven that black people are the most targeted race in racially motivated hate crimes. At least eight African Americans, three white people and three gay people face a hate crime everyday

Lopez IV Hate Crime History In the 1860s, groups like the Klu Klux Klan, committed hate crimes every day. They wore long white robes with masks. Their goal was to reconstruct white supremacy, so they targeted black people, even white people who were republican leaders. They burned down crosses, staged rallies and parades, and denounced blacks, immigrants, Catholics, Jews and organized labor. Their most notorious zone in the south was North Carolina; they spread throughout the south by the 1870s. They targeted and bombed schools and churches of black institutions and autonomy symbols. The Klu Klux Klan (KKK) is still around today, but they did make some changes to their targets. They no longer attack Catholics, but do attack Hispanic and Asian people. These acts were brought to the governments attention by the 1980s; it wasnt until 1990 that the United States congress passed the Hate Crime Statistic Act. After the act was passed, the FBI and authorities started to follow up on hate crimes and its statistics. These hate crimes have gone on since ancient civilization. Other earlier examples were massacres like the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. Anyone who didn't subscribe to the cult of Rome was seen as a threat to the dominance and pure beliefs and the Romans did whatever they can to defend what they believed in. Another example of ancient civilization would be The Holocaust ran by Adolf Hitler, where there was genocide against the Jewish people that killed 6 million Jews. The children murdered reached over a million, the killing of the Jewish woman reached 2 million and they also killed 3 million men. To help make this happen, there were over

Lopez V 40,000 facilities in Germany used for concentration camps to hold and kill Jews and other victim. Jews weren't the only victims of this holocaust; other victims of this mass murder were homosexuals, Soviet prisoners of war and their civilians also.

What causes the crime? Hate crimes occur because of prejudice beliefs and ignorance. They also occur because of the failure to understand that there are differences between people and their traditions. Often times, people feel intimidated by people who speak a different language. They dont know what theyre saying, maybe theyre talking about them, and they may also feel jealous because of it. People may commit hate crimes against immigrants because they feel like theyre taking jobs away from the American people and feel like they shouldnt be in Americ a because it isnt their original country. Another reason people commit crimes against immigrants is because they feel that they get assistance from the government that Americans dont. Some American people also dont want the immigrants to mix in with their race or in American society period. Offenders of hate crimes just like the thrill of committing a crime on someone of a group they dont like. Other offenders who truly dislike another race will continue to commit these crimes against them until they are caught by authority. In some cases, being a victim of a hate crime is the reason its committed. Some victims feel threatened by the race that they were attacked by. Some of the victims just want revenge from the group that they were attacked by.

Lopez VI Offender age range and top cities Hate crimes are mostly done by young people between the ages of 15 and 24 years old. In some cases, offenders may even go up to being 26 years of age. The main states in the United States where hate crimes occur is in the states with the highest population which is California and New York. Other states such as New Jersey, Michigan and Massachusetts also have a high rate in hate crime. Those are the top 5 states in the country that have the most hate crime. In Los Angeles, California, there are reports that one third of their high schools have experiences of hate crimes. In 1983 violent hate crimes were low, but property damages were very high. In the 90s, property damages decreased, but violence increased. In New York City, New York, there are recent reports about a man who was caught playing a knockout spree against Jewish people; this includes elderly woman and young mothers. The game was about seeing how many people can be knocked out with only one punch. There's another case where a woman pushed a man into the subway tracks because she thought he was a Muslim. She hates Muslim people because of the tragedy that happened on 9/11. She could be facing up to 25 years in prison. In New Jersey, there was a case where two men of a white supremacist group attacked two Egyptian men because of their race. After that they went to an apartment complex and searched for non-whites to attack. One of the suspects, Michal Gunar was sentenced three years and deportation after he pled guilty. The other suspect was sentenced to

Lopez VII 15 months on conspiracy charges. There's also a case in Detroit, Michigan where a man named Justin Alesna was attacked inside of a store because he was standing behind a man named Everett Avery who believed he was gay. Avery demanded that Alesna moved back and threw homosexual slurs before he attacked him and broke his eye socket and gave him other injuries in his face. Avery is now facing a maximum of 10 years in prison. How they can be reduced Ways to reduce hate crime is to have parents teach their children the right way to look at others with differences from who they are. Teaching them that everyone is equal and nobody is superior to someone else no matter the color or characteristics. This will help them to grow into people that will accept people from different races religions and sexual orientation. Make the public aware of the fact that most hate crimes arent reported and should be if they are ever a victim. Most hate crimes arent re ported which makes it hard for the statistics to be accurate with the hate crime numbers. Two out of three hate crime victims dont report hate crimes. Most victims who dont report hate crimes wont report it because they feel like the authority wouldnt do anything to help them. Encouraging crime statistics to show hate crimes to the public more often would also help a lot; it would make people more aware of this type of crime and keep them alert. Another way to reduce hate crime is to teach people to reject all stereotypes. Stereo types play a big role in hate crimes. For example, in 2001, after the 9/11 attack in New York City, people began to attack Muslims or people who appeared to be Muslims. These attacks also occurred in California, Arizona, Virginia, Texas,

Lopez VIII Florida, Ohio, Maryland, New Jersey and Illinois. Giving lots of support to those whove been a victim is another way to reduce hate crime; this will help people to not be grudgful against those who attacked them. Jail Time When a crime is committed, normal jail time will be given to the offender, but, if the court finds that the crime was committed because of hate the sentence will be a lot more severe rather than the crime itself. Anyone who violates this law will face a fine and or up to a year in prison for less serious crimes. This occurs if they attempt to engage in one of the six federally protected activities such as applying for employment, going to school, patronizing the public, voting, or doing jury duty in a court. An offender may face up to 10 years in prison for crimes with the use of firearms, even if it is only to intimidate the other individual. Hate crimes that involving sexual assault, kidnapping, or murder will get offender life in prison or the death penalty. Some may argue that this type of crime isn't that serious and is exaggerated. At the end of the day, the same types of crime are still being committed, whether it's because someone else is different or not. People need to express themselves and show their differences with the other race or sexually oriented person they disagree with. While it is true that a crime is being committed regardless if its hate or not, it's still a very negative activity that needs to be stopped. Studies show that victims of hate crime become fearful, angry and suspicious of others

Lopez IX who are a different race. This can even affect the people around them as a community and force them to behave the same way as the victim out of their love and loyalty for each other. With this happening victims can become offenders of the crime themselves and create a vicious cycle. People should keep their feelings to themselves if it isnt something good about another person. This should be dealt with by the person who wants to commit the crime against an innocent individual. This person should start looking at others with differences in a different way because theyll never be able to attack everybody they see with these differences As Barbara McQuade said, A hate crime is different than a simple assault because it is an attack on not just one individual victim, but an attack on everyone who shares a particular characteristic. As presented in this paper, hate crime isnt new but isnt talked about too much either. These crimes are not taken as serious as they should be. Attention was brought to what hate crime is, who commits them, at what ages, they are being committed, how often they occur, which states have the most and which people are targeted the most. Hate crimes are done every day and it isnt taken seriously. It can happen to anyone in this country at any time. After reading this paper there should be enough information gathered to try and avoid these crimes. It is also shown that participating to try and put an end to these crimes would be very helpful to society.

Lopez x Work Cited

"Why Do Hate Crimes Occur?" Web log post. Partersagainsthate. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. <http://www.partnersagainsthate.org/hate_response_network/why-do-hate-crimes-occur.html>. "The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights." The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. <http://www.civilrights.org/hatecrimes/united-states/>. "Background on Hate Crimes." Do Something. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. <https://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/background-hate-crimes>. "Tell Us What You Think of GOV.UK." Hate Crime. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. <https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/reducing-and-preventing-crime--2/supporting-pages/hatecrime>. Yost, Pete. "The Big Story." The Big Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2014. <http://bigstory.ap.org/article/study-finds-nearly-2-3-hate-crimes-unreported "Truth A Right to Fight For." Truth A Right to Fight For. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2014. <http://truthfultragedy.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/violent-hate-crimes-go-unreported-because-mostpeople-dont-have-faith-in-the-police-new-study/>.

"Hate Crime Laws: Punishment to Fit the Crime | Dissent Magazine." Dissent Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2014. <http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/hate-crime-lawspunishment-to-fit-the-crime>.