Victimology of Hate Crimes - Research Paper Example

Victimology of Hate Crimes Abtract In the recent years, hate crimes have surfaced across different parts of the world. The crime has been a matterof concern for policy makers. Correspondinly, the issue of hate crime has intrigued many scholars to research on the same. In relation to this, the purpose of the study was to explore whether criminal offenses are motivated either or in part by the fact, or perception that a victim is different from the perpetrator. Besides, the study attempted to determine the causes of hate crime.It was observed from the study that perception of an individual is a major motivating factor which result in a hate crime.The rationle behind this statement was supported with the past incidents, which reflected conflicts between white and black people, perception of western people towards Islamic community and behaviour towards homosexual genders. In addition, it was observed that major factor contributing towards emergence of hate crime is firmly related to prejudice and differences in perception hold by one individual or community towards other. 2. Introduction Hate crime offence in general terms is described as a procedure of violating law through which distortion can be brought to the wellbeing of the common people. As a result, people committing hate crime offences are subjected to possible punishments and penalties by taking into consideration, the severity of the situation they create. Hate Crime offences can be of multiple types. For instance, the offences can be associated to inappropriate interpersonal behavior with other community people, property fight, killing, vandalism and multiple more. The individuals who get severely affected by these offences are considered as victims whereas the individuals who commit these crimes are considered as perpetrator. Often people perceive that victims are different from the perpetrator but the contrary is perceived in majority of the cases. Multiple cases arise when hate crime offence gets triggered in and by two or more communities. However, at the final stage if can be seen that one of the offence triggering community ends up being the victim. In these cases, it becomes difficult in determining the factors that separates the victims from the perpetrator. Thus, this discussion will mostly remain focused towards understanding the differences between the victims and the perpetrator. It will also focus on factors those results in occurrence of a hate crime. The details regarding these aspects have been mentioned in the subsequent discussion. 3. Discussion In order to justify the point regarding whether the hate criminal offenses are motivated by fact or by perception, that a victim is dissimilar from the perpetrator, the case of the racial and ethnic differences between the black and the white community can be elaborated in a detailed manner. It needs to be understood that hate crimes are majorly affect individuals within multiple communities due to factors such as ‘race’, ‘ethnicity’, ‘religion’ and ‘sexual orientation’. Thus, in this context, the perception and the consideration of both the communities regarding them being superior from the other, is the major fact that has resulted in the attempt of decade long hate crime activities between them. Thus in this regard, it can be stated that the perception of these communities has given rise to the committing hate crimes. Here the victims in no means can be considered different from the perpetrator due to the fact that the equal indulgence of both the communities can be found within all the criminal activities (The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rightsb, 2014). For this provided case, the victims can be segregated into two categories. The first category is the ones who gets involved in the racial crimes and suffer the consequences and the second category is regarding those subjected to the consequences as a collateral effect from the first category. Thus, the perceptions of the victims and the perpetrator can be considered equally responsible for motivating the hate criminal offences. However, multiple facts can be held accountable through which, the justifications regarding difference of the victims to that of the perpetrator, can be falsified. As already discussed above, hate crimes are always associated with activities such as bullying of the students belonging from other communities and races, stalking, harassment of individuals belonging from other races and many more. Thus, taking this aspect into consideration, the victim’s protest against the perpetrator can be considered factual. As a result, the perceptions and the facts related to both the victim and the perpetrator can again be held responsible for motivating hate crimes (The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rightsb, 2014). In addition, hate crimes can take multiple shapes. For instance, it can be committed by a single individual or a group of individuals. Multiple other incidents occur where the motivations of the perpetrator has given rise to hate crimes. By taking into concern the case of suicide bombers as being both perpetrator and victims, it can be affirmed that in relation to victimization aspect, these bombers get brainwashed by war leaders who possess some sort of grudge over particular community (Ronczkowski, 2011). Likewise, after getting brainwashed, these bombers play the role of perpetrator and endanger the lives of multiple individuals belonging to the community upon which the war leaders might have grudge. This in turn gives rise to hatred within the community that gets victimized and they as a gradual response get involved in committing multiple hate crimes. By taking reference of this instance, it can be stated that the there does not occurs much difference between the perpetrator and the victims (Ronczkowski, 2011). The misalignments between the homosexual genders and the heterosexual genders can also be related to hate crimes. In this context, the sexual orientation can be considered as the main factor promoting the occurrence of hate crimes. One such instance, which is apparent in explaining hate crime case, is about a homosexual man who was violently attacked by the two youngsters that caused his demise. Here, in this case, the negative perception of the two youngsters against the homosexual person can be held accountable for promoting the hate crime (The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, 2014). Adding to that, the percentage of hate crimes against the homosexual population has touched significant numbers which has become a crux of matter for policy makers in the recent time. Multiple individuals take the marriage aspect between two heterosexual genders as base and depending on which they feel uncomfortable in accepting the concept of marriage between individuals belonging from the same genders. This non-tallying perception often results in giving rise to multiple negative views that finally results in the committing violent activities (Business Insider Inc., 2014). Likewise, a contrary perception can also emerge within the minds of the homosexual individuals regarding protecting their own interests, freedom and integrity from being abruptly abused, which in turn might force them in getting involved within the revolting acts. Thus taking reference from this instance it can be understood that in order to the safeguard the self interest, the victims in majority of the cases does not hesitate in protesting against the perpetrator. As a result, the justification regarding the difference within the victims and the perpetrator can again be falsified by taking the reference of this instance. Rather the similarity within the perception of the victims and the perpetrator can in turn be considered as a factor motivating the hate criminal offenses (Business Insider Inc., 2014). Multiple cases of hate crime have also been encounter within the teenagers. Over the past few years, news regarding student harassment belonging to other communities came within the notice of various colleges. One such instance occurred in California during the year 2013 where three students of the ‘San Jose State University’ were charged for violently harassing their roommate on the grounds of race and skin color. Although this harassment act got resolved through subjecting the accused to punishment but this event could have been responsible for giving rise to a massive protest within two or more communities (Los Angeles Times, 2014). Hate crimes has been challenging the rules and guidelines of the governments over the decades. It needs to be understood that the crimes motivated by prejudice are far more dangerous in comparison to the other crimes. It deteriorates the relationship between the people and also imposes risk of inter-community clashes. The persistence of hate crimes has also been an issue between the whites and the Islamic immigrants (Los Angeles Times, 2014). Multiple cases can be found to be apparent regarding the physical and the verbal assaults conceded out upon the Islamic women’s specifically within the western nations. Negative acquisitions such as terrorists are often made against the Islamic immigrants which in turn results in abusing their religious sentiments. Thus taking consideration of this instance, it can be stated that the negative perception of the white community people against the Islamic community results in the occurrence of multiple assaults within these two communities. Contextually, no difference can be witnesses within the victims and the perpetrator in this case as well. Moreover, this similarity can also be considered as a fact rather than a perception in terms of motivating hate crimes (Muslim Public Affairs Council, 2014). One crucial factor, which needs to be understood, is the uniqueness prevailing within the different communities that give rise to both negative and positive perceptions in the minds of the individuals belonging to those communities. Moreover, there is a greater chances of negative perceptions to suppress the positive perceptions as a result of which the individuals of one community starts discriminating the individuals belonging from other communities on the basis of differences prevailing within them (Muslim Public Affairs Council, 2014). Controlling this perception factor is risky task for the government. This is due to fact that the negative perception, gradually impacts the emotions and the sentiments of the individuals belonging to the community that gets subjected to hate crime. As a result, the chance of occurrence of hate crimes within such communities becomes inevitable. This in turn triggers multiple other criminal offences such as rape, vandalism and homicide among others. So it can be stated that in the occurrence of hate crimes, the perception concept, as a result of similarity between the victim and the perpetrator, plays the preliminary role, whereas, the factual concept helps determining the imminent crime occurrences based on the previous records (Muslim Public Affairs Council, 2014). Hate crime occurrences are also identified to take place in cases where there exist physically and mentally challenged individuals. However, one differentiation factor which pervades in this context is that, rather than being a communal practice, hate crimes occur for disability cases occur as individual practice. Majority of hate crime cases for this aspect can be found occurring with the families in which one or two members are physically or mentally challenged (Levin, 2011). One instance in this context is regarding the inferiority and the superiority complex that exists between the healthy and the physically challenged siblings in a family. The physically and the mentally challenged siblings require more parental care and attention due to which the emergence of jealousy feeling within the other siblings gets imminent. As a result, their behavior and reactions towards their physically or mentally challenged completely takes a negative turn. Multiple cases have been observed where situations like these have resulted in giving rise to severe physical violence between the siblings (Levin, 2011). Here, the perception of the perpetrator sibling against the physically disabled sibling can be clearly held responsible for fueling the occurrence of hate crimes. Cases of hate crimes against disabilities are also witnessed within varied workplaces. Often it happens that within workplaces, the physically and the mentally sound individuals start comparing their working capabilities with that of the disabled employees. Based on this notion, they start considering themselves as superior and misbehave with the disabled employees. This eventually creates an atmosphere of conflict and mistrust within the workplace, the result of which might end up being committing a criminal offence (politics.co.uk, 2014). All the above mentioned facts took consideration of the difference between the victim and the perpetrator both from the perception and the factual end, deterring that whether such difference can be considered as a factor for motivating hate crimes or not. However, within majority of the cases projected above, significant evidence has been found regarding the fact that in order to safeguard the self interests and integrity, the victims also get equally involved in committing hate crimes. As a result, the justification for the provided context cannot be proved as positive in majority of the cases by a certain degree. 4. Factors Causing Hate Crimes In situations of crisis and tension, people do project the behavior of blaming the faults on others. In such cases, multiple perceptions exist within their minds that might result in devastating effects. As a result, varied causes can be held accountable for motivating hate crimes. These causes have been specifically mentioned as follows. The first cause is about the perception of the individuals regarding the racial differences. This cause has been overwhelmingly prevalent within the society for a considerable period of time. One such instance is the racial difference between the black and the white community people across multiple nations such as in America (Los Angeles Times, 2014). Other nations such as China, Afghanistan, India and multiple more have also witnessed considerable level of racial hate crimes over the decades. Community which perceives itself within higher class tries to dominate the lower class communities. This factor abuses the cultural sentiments of individuals belonging from other races and thus results in the commitment of hate crimes. The second reason fueling up the occurrence of hate crimes is regarding the difference in the sexual orientations. Significant portion of the population are identified to fail to shape their perceptions in terms of accepting the homosexuals and the transgender individuals and often commit violent assaults against them which in turn distorts the societal and the communal balance within a nation. Adding to that, the religious affiliation can also be considered as a significant factor motivating the occurrences of hate crimes (Levin, 2011). This religious difference issue as the third reason can also be considered to be persistent within multiple nations. One specific instance is the incident of 9/11 that has created a major gap between the whites and the individuals belonging from the Islamic community. Due to this gap, multiple violence cases have been witnesses where the Islamic women have underwent brutal assaults as a result of hatred against them within other community. The fourth reason is regarding the hatred within the common individuals against the disabled persons. Since the disabled individuals lacks the capability of protesting against the misconducts carried out on them, so they become easy victims of such perpetrator (politics.co.uk, 2014). 5. Conclusion By taking into consideration, the above discussion, it can be understood that the concept of hate crime has been a serious threat to the society and the humanity. The perception of being different and superior from other, gradually changes the mentality and the thought process of people regarding one another and subsequently they start revolting against one another. Taking the above mentioned statements into consideration, it can be understood that the religion and the communal difference has been one of the major factors motivating the occurrences of hate crimes within multiple nations. People need to know that every individual is equal and thus have the right of attaining whichever religion they see fit. It is also necessary for every individual to respect the sentiments and deeds of every other individual so as to reinforce the concept of diversification. In addition to that, it can also be stated that hate crimes has turned up to be a matter of concern for the governmental bodies of multiple nations and has also affected the overall productivity and development. Thus, as a concluding statement it can be stated that it is not the differences between the victims and the perpetrator that motivates hate crimes. Rather, it is the similarity between the victims and the perpetrator that has motivated hate crime as a result of negative perception between them. References Business Insider Inc. (2014). Expert: desperate anger is driving the rise in anti-gay hatred. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/hate-crimes-against-gays-in-america-2013-5?IR=T Levin, J. (2011). The invisible hate crime. Retrieved from http://www.psmag.com/legal-affairs/the-invisible-hate-crime-27984/ Los Angeles Times. (2014). Hate crimes. Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/hate-crimes Muslim Public Affairs Council. (2014). What is a hate crime/incident? Retrieved from http://www.mpac.org/programs/hate-crime-prevention/what-is-a-hate-crime.php#.U929_PmSyou politics.co.uk. (2014). Disability discrimination. Retrieved from http://www.politics.co.uk/reference/disability-discrimination Ronczkowski, M. R. (2011). Terrorism and Organized Hate Crime: Intelligence Gathering, Analysis and Investigations, Third Edition. United States: CRC Press. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. (2014). Hate crimes in the United States. Retrieved from http://www.civilrights.org/hatecrimes/united-states/ The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rightsb. (2014). Hate crimes against African Americans. Retrieved from http://www.civilrights.org/publications/hatecrimes/african-americans.html Read More