What Are Hate Crimes All About? - Community Watch Paper

Hate crime is not a new term. Unfortunately, it doesn’t even surprise anymore when you hear about any crime that took place due to an individual’s race, religion, or nationality.

When talking about what hate crimes are all about, a criminal manifest often occurs where the victim gets targeted intentionally. Many people become the victim of violence just because of their ethnicity, sexuality, or religion.

When talking about hate crime laws, many states have passed hate crime laws since 1980. It started when protestors and activists started to press about bias violence that usually takes place against minorities. Today, there are just a few states that do not have laws against hate crimes.

Here, we will talk about many hate crimes and their impact on society.

What Are The Common Causes of Hate Crimes?

Hate has no race or religion, and it may be planted inside somebody you cannot even expect. Hatred and hate crimes are all about mental superiority complex. So far, the most commonly happened hate crimes are those mentioned below.

Religious Belief

It is indeed a widely happened unfortunate act that people are harmed or killed due to their religion. Worshipping a God other than the accused person’s God often turns out to be the reason for a hate crime. So many protests take place due to these hate crimes, but it does not seem to be eliminated from society.

Extremists are found in almost every religion who caused the reason for the violence in society. Religion is the most sensitive issue for humanity.

Its impact is so extraordinary when individuals or groups of people are targeted due to religious beliefs. It has been witnessing by many that protest is recorded everywhere in the world when such events are reported.

It is everyone’s responsibility to think positively and make this world a better living place.

Ethnicity

Nobody ever realizes that a person is being hated just because of their ethnicity. When talking about ethnicity, it comes in a sub-line of race. When talking about race, it includes skin color, physical appearance, and origin, while ethnicity is an addition.

Ethnicity is where the other religious and cultural difference is added into a person’s race, provoking the accused to harm the victims. Ethnicity is the root cause of unrest in the country where people are targeted based on ethnic differences. Even the Facebook post led to 70 people in Ethiopia in 2019-2020 due to the ethnic difference.

Also, India and Pakistan are among the nations where people are hated due to ethnic differences. Both countries have been serious challenges to overcome this severe issue.

Sexuality

When it comes to sexuality, many people cannot accept that it is every individual’s right to decide what to do with their life. When talking about marriages, it is the right and healthy concept of spending a straight life. But, today, bisexuality, homosexuality, and same-gender relationships are not surprising anymore.

Many countries have legalized marriages between the same genders. It is OK to have an opinion about it. Also, there is no wrong in liking or disliking it. But when it comes to committing any crime against someone due to their sexuality, it is not acceptable.

Sadly, we witness such crimes regularly, which shows the ugly side of the world.

Gender Biasness

Extremism in anything leads to crime and be the cause of hateful crimes. With time, the world has started to accept the identity of transgender individuals. A few years ago, this class of people did not have any acceptance and identity in society.

But unfortunately, where transgender is getting acceptance, some mentally unstable heads cannot accept females or even males. Feminism often leads a few females to the next level that they hate the opposite gender like anything and vice versa. Men or women-hating the other gender falls in the category of gender bias ness.

Nationality

Hatred towards any individual or a group of people because they belong to a different nationality is not a surprising act. The accent, language, or anything can be a cause to trigger a person or a group of people with the lowest mindset to hate based on these factors.

It is widespread in the countries where superiority complex is found. It tends them to hate the other nationals, especially when they are from developing countries.

Each country needs to stop or take necessary actions against this hatred based on nationalism. It creates unrest in the society and impacts badly on the country’s image when such incidents happen. Other nationals refrain from traveling to such countries where hatred based on nationalism is common.

Racism

Racism is something that the world has been witnessing for centuries. The most recent example of white supremacy and black people’s rights is the brutal killing of a black man in the US.

However, racism doesn’t end here; even if somebody gets married to some particular kind of race can trigger sick-minded people. It hurts individuals’ sentiment, and the whole society is triggered if any incidents happen due to racism.

Black and white people are commonly suffered from racism more than any other group. According to the US Department of OJJDP, the Total number of offenses reported were more than 10 million in which 9.5 million offenses were between white and black race in the year 2019. It doesn’t only cause only assault or murders, but financial losses have to face by the aggrieved party.

Even sports are not free from racism, and it becomes the reason for assault during the game. For example, multiple incidents were reported when football matches got stopped. Players had to leave the stadium during the match because of protest.

Disability

Disability is another reason that becomes the victim of hate crime in almost every society. It is the act where an individual or individuals are targeted because of their disability. Typically, any incident perceived by the victim as a disability hate crime can be recorded.

It has been noticed that disability hate crimes often go unreported or misreported, or overlooked. A disability hate crime may include threatening, physical & verbal abuse, harassment, online abuse, and property damage.

How to Identify and Eliminate a Hate Crime?

When it comes to identifying a hate crime, police also fail to recognize it in most cases. It is because laws implemented against hate crimes have limitations and are narrow enough. It is the primary reason why investigating, reporting, or charging against hate issues is pretty complicated.

Each year, more than 200,000 people are victims of hate crimes, as per the National Crime Victimization Survey in the US. It is that number that is reported to the police and against which an action is taken. But, unfortunately, a significant number still goes unreported, which is a significant reason that fuels the violence.

Police Has To Be Unbiased

It is a bitter reality that multiple incidents have ruined people’s trust in cops due to their biased attitude or lack of awareness and resources.

It has been observed that police lack the required resources, and training and training departments often lack the motivation to give training to cops. Lack of success to identify hate crimes feeds people’s distrust of the police department.

A large number is reported each year, but still, there is no clue that against what number the investigation and charges take place. The lack of training, resources, and interest to investigate against the minority can be a significant reason not to protect victims against hate crimes.

Accused Must Be Punished

The accused must be accountable in the court of law to stop the hate crime from society. Any society can only flourish once the crime is eliminated. Some extreme examples have to be set against the offenders. Justice must be served as quickly as possible, which will help minimize the crime rate.

Law and order should always prevail, and everyone has to be treated equally. In the past, we have witnessed that most influential figures are given leniency, and victims have to suffer whole of life to get justice from the court of law. Legislative bodies must work on law-making and punish the offender accordingly.

Conclusion

Hate crimes are taking place all around the world more than ever before. It is often difficult to identify the root cause of such violence. Accused take out their frustration over the victim by making an issue of a minor thing.

It gets pretty complicated to identify what hate crimes are all about as the doer of a crime hides behind a reason. Unfortunately, the lack of interest and biases of official protectors fuel the courage of accused ones. Victims do not get justice due to racial or religious biases. It must be eliminated from all states. CWP

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