Hate crimes encompasses a broad concept with regards to the disability, religion, ethnicity and race, and sexual orientation of an individual or group of people. It is not only the physical term and aspect of committing crimes against certain people, but also a way of degrading and debasing the belongingness and identity of one person. We could say that a statement that would humiliate ones personality or group, whether seriously said or sarcastically delivered, in any way, is committing a hate crime. However, there are many conditions and considerations to take in defining and identifying hate crimes with other crimes. According to Jack Levin and Jack Mcdevitt of Northwestern University, “it involves actions that have already been defined as illegal in state or federal statutes, it specifies the motivation for committing the offense; it requires that a racial, religious, ethnic or some other identified difference between victim and offender play at least some role in inspiring the criminal act, and it does not identify a particular set of protected groups to which the hate crime designation can be exclusively applied.”
A person who could involve or commit hate crimes, basically, is the one who has personal bias to another person. It could also be hatred or anger that pushed one person to do hate crime. A person who has close personality, in such a way that he does not accept others culture and character is prone to commit hate crime. An individual who has also insecurity and jealousy with other people has the potential to be the doer of the action.
Nowadays, hate crimes generally root from the racial issues, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and disability. Although there are some cases of “multiple bias incidents,” the mentioned issues are the main reasons why do people resort to hate crimes. Throughout the United States, the cases of the hate crimes with regards to racial issues are still prevalent. It is followed by the religion and sexual orientation, respectively. In specific, for example, the old issue between the black and white people in America, in a play “A Raisin’ in the Sun,” it shows a lot of discrimination of white people to black people. It was also the same issue when the first case of hate crime was identified. In the late 1980s, a black man was killed in the New York City, when he attempted to stop the a group of white teenagers who was mobilizing that time while shouting discriminating words in racial issues of black people.
What hate crimes denied is the equality that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stated to pursue. In line with this, there are advocacies and campaigns being conducted to promote equality among different groups of people in the society. There are on-line campaigns and organizations which promotes and help other people who are being hated by other people in their society. For example are the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transexual groups all over the world that continue their struggle for them to be openly accepted by the society. There are also proposed bills and law created for the provision of these hate crime cases like the Anti-Defamation Law. These are only legal moves to prevent and lessen hate crimes.
However, in individual level, one must have open minded to accept that every people has different races and traditions. Everyone has their own choices in life to choose their character and path.
Generally, hate crimes, as of now, is relatively serious occurrences that should be cautious in society. No one has the right to deprive and humiliate others. Considering that everyone should be equally treated, no matter what his race, ethnic, religion, sexual orientation, or disability either.
Reference
- Paul A Winters “Hate crimes” San Diego, CA : Greenhaven Press, 1996.
- Laura D’Angelo “Hate crimes” Philadelphia, Pa. : Chelsea House, 1998.