Hate Crime Analysis: Muslims and Arabs - Essay Example

Hate Crime Analysis: Muslims and Arabs It is a worldwide concern that numerous acts of violence are targeting specific groups either for racial, religious and/or gender reasons. Ethically, this is incorrect yet few people still abide by their beliefs rather than doing what is ethical; hence the emergence of hate crimes. Hate crime in the recent past has been directed towards Muslims and Arabs thanks to War on Terrorism (Government, 2006). Since the September 11th incident, most of the American citizens have stereotyped any American Muslim and/or Arab-looking person as a terrorist and may be planning another terror attack against the U.S. This paper aims at providing the reader with a detailed analysis of hate crimes that target American Muslims and other Arab-looking Americans and the reasons as to why these crimes are directed towards this group of people. In addition, the paper identifies the restorative justice model to be used in addressing this issue as well as the benefits and challenges of using restorative Hate Crime Analysis: Muslims and Arabs Recent times have seen more politicians, social movements and interest groups in the United States raise concerns over hate crimes with some terming the act as a social problem that requires immediate national concern/attention (Government, 2006). As a result of this growing concern and increased pressure from civil rights advocates, many states across the U.S have enacted legislative laws regarding hate crimes. In addition, the federal government addressed this hate crime issue by enacting laws that will see all law enforcement agencies collect all hate crime data. This made the U.S a leading nation in the employment of the hate crime fighting techniques which, according to Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990, are offences against a person or property which is as a result of bias motivation towards race, disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation and/or religion. The September 11th terror attack increased the number of hate crime incidences directed towards Arab Americans, Muslims and Sikhs from about 28 in the year 2000 to more than 480 in 2001 from an estimated total of 9,730 hate crimes (Doerner and Lab, 2008). According to Gavrielides (2010), numerous examples exist that justify the act of hate crimes towards this religious group including but not limited to; i. January, 2009: Mohammed Al Hadi, a stock clerk in Memphis was aimed at and shot dead by an unknown goon as if he had a feud with the clerk. Another clerk of Arab origin was also murdered at the same day at another grocery in the same neighborhood. ii. September, 2004: An incident regarding racial taunts happened at Berkeley in University of California where eight Muslim students were confronted by white males (3). The white men sprayed water on the students, showered them with bottles of water screamed insulting words and mocked the dress code of the Muslim women. iii. July, 2007: Joseph and Georgia Silva accused Vishal Wadhwa, 38, a Muslim and his family on the beach of Lake Tahoe of being relatives to Osama Bin Laden, terrorists and calling them other insulting names. It was later found that Mr. Vishal Wadhwa and his family were all but Indian Americans. In addition, the Silvas had beaten up the family and left them with facial fractures. In August 2008, the judge dismissed the charges of hate crime. The judge felt that the prosecution lacked sufficient evidence to classify the crime as hate crime. iv. October, 2008: An unknown assailant attacked a 10 year old Sikh boy, Gagandeep Singh, while he was walking home from school in Wayne, New Jersey and threw him on the ground and cut the boy’s hair. Sikhs consider their hair to be a God-given gift thus they viewed the cutting of the boy’s hair as a hateful crime/act. The Restoration Justice Practice The restorative process aims at bringing together victims of a hate crime or conflict and those perpetrated the crime via communication thus enabling each participant in the crime to take part in the repairing process and help to find a positive way forward (Gavrielides, 2010). A number of models exist that are used to mediate these communications. Hate crimes directed towards Muslims and Arabs can be addressed using any of the following models of justice restoration (RJ Models, 2010). i. Restorative Conferencing – commonly used in the Criminal Justice System (CJS), Gavrielides (2010) argues that this model sometimes addresses serious issues in schools, care homes and communities. This meeting is usually made of the victim, the perpetrator, supporters and a facilitator. This model follows a clear structure with a number of facilitators choosing to follow a list of set questions and reaching a conclusion that sees both sides reconcile (Gavrielides, 2010). ii. Family Group Conferencing – this is where a group of extended family members and friends meet with the aim of resolving a given hate crime conflict (Heurich, 2008). According to Gavrielides (2010), the facilitator chooses to involve whoever they feel can help in the resolution of the conflict. iii. Victim-offender mediation – This model is mainly used within the Criminal Justice System (Gavrielides, 2010). The model involves a facilitator, the offender and the victim with some cases providing room for both party supporters and a co-mediator. A free dialogue mediated by the facilitator is carried out to establish an agreement between the parties. In other cases, Gavrielides (2010) affirms that a contract can be developed at the end of the dialogue. iv. Community Mediation Boards – this model employs the use of a trained volunteer from the community who can resolve low-level hate crimes (Gavrielides, 2010). This is usually used in neighborhood conflicts to resolve small disputes where there is harm on both parties rather than pin-pointing the offender and the victim. Benefits Findings from previous researches show that restorative justice programmes have had a number of benefits. i. Substantially reduced the rate at which offenders repeated offences ii. It has increased the offences that are brought to justice iii. Heavily reduced the traumatic stress felt by the victims of the crimes iv. Reduces the desire for revenge felt by angry victims v. Provides both the victim and the offender with more satisfaction as compared to criminal justice systems. Challenge The principal challenge that faces restorative justice is to make sure the growth of the practice changes the response of the society towards wrong doing (Doerner and Lab, 2008). Measurement of Rates of Victimization Up to now, researchers are yet to find a way to define, classify and measure the violent events as it usually involves people’s views and reports of a crime (Doerner and Lab, 2008). For this case of American Muslims and Arabs, the suitable instruments for measurement of victimization is the collection of official reports from law enforcing agents and surveys that ask people about their victimization experiences. Another method involves asking people of the offences they have committed, but this may be ineffective in this case as most people may be reluctant to open up to the crimes they have committed. Criminological theories tend to explain the causes of crimes, the nature, extend and the consequences of a given crime while at the same time helping find effective strategies to control them (Criminology, 2000). In this study, the use of psychological theories like moral development theories and social learning theories puts emphasis on learning and internalization of moral values and codes. Religion is a moral value that can be affected by personality traits like extroversion, which, in turn, increases the chances of criminal activities. Hate crime is growing massively but many organizations are developing strategies to address the issue. In addition, the government, through law enforcement agencies, is constantly monitoring and enacting tight laws for addressing the issue today and in future. References Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2007). Victim characteristics. Washington, DC:US Government Printing Office. Criminology. (2000). Retrieved Oct. 9, 2012 at http://autocww.colorado.edu/~toldy3/E64ContentFiles/LawAndCourts/Criminology.html Doerner, W. G., & Lab, S. P. (2008). Victimology. Cincinnati, OH: LexisNexis Anderson Publishing. Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2007). Crime in the United States: Uniform crime report 2006. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. Gavrielides, T. (2010). Contextualizing restorative justice for hate crimes. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Government of Canada. (2006). Cost of crime in Canada. Retrieved Oct. 9, 2012, at http://www.victimsweek.gc.ca/archive2006/fast-sheets/p2.html Heurich, C. (2008). Cold cases: Resources for agencies, resolution for families. NIJ Journal, 260, 20-23. RJ Models. (2010). Retrieved Oct. 9, 2012, at http://www.restorativejustice.org.uk/resource/rj_models/#.UHPo7WIrmGM Read More