Hate Crimes
The rise in the instances of hate crimes in liberal democracies is disturbing and it cries out for a better understanding as to why it occurs -- and what to do about it. What are the potential solutions to the ugly specter of hateful acts against people because of their ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, nationality, the color of their skin or their gender? This paper reviews the literature relative to the best ideas and proposals for identifying the root causes that produce hate crimes. Argument: hate crimes can be reduced through education, by paying close attention to bigoted conspiracy theories, and by infiltrating extremist / hate groups.
Original Issue -- Initial Solutions
Erik Bleich writes in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies that in order to try and stem the tide of racist and other hateful public pronouncements against individuals or groups, several European countries passed laws "…against racial incitement" (Bleich, 2011, 919). The House of Commons passed the 1965 Race Relations Act, making it illegal to "intentionally use threatening, abusive or insulting language" which is used in order to "stir up hatred against" people on the grounds of "…colour, race, or ethnic/national origins" (Bleich, 919).
After WWII Germany created Article 86 of the criminal code that makes it illegal to use Nazi symbols (swastikas and Nazi flags) (Bleich, 920). In 1960, the German Parliament voted "unanimously" to make it illegal to "…incite hatred, to provoke violence, or to insult, ridicule or defame 'parts of the population' in a manner apt to breach the public peace" (Bleich, 920).
France passed an anti-racism law in 1972 that banned "defamation"...
Hate Crimes in the United States Despite the fact that the United States has grown generally more tolerant and more accepting, hate crimes have been on the rise in many cities in the United States, particularly in California, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, and Massachusetts (Partners against Hate, 2003). This does not necessarily reflect an overall increase in crime. In fact, it may not even reflect an increase in actual hate
Hate crimes are crimes involving a person targeted because of their disability, belief/religion, transgender identity, sexual orientation, or race/ethnicity. Hate crimes can also be committed against property. A good example of this is a burning cross on a front lawn. The reality is hate crimes can be committed against anyone and although hate incidents are not crimes, they can easily escalate into crimes. By working with law enforcement and collecting
C. By Michael Shively (June, 2005), the first hate crime laws were enacted during the sixties, seventies, and eighties. The first states to pass hate crime legislation were Oregon and Washington in 1981. The first federal hate crime legislation, Shively explains, was debated in 1985, and the first federal statute related to hate crimes was the Hate Crimes Statistics Act, passed in 1990. Subsequent to that Act, other pieces of
D., para. 8). While homosexuality is not the primary focus of a person's identity that counselors fixate on during these sessions, it is important that counselors take the fact that their client is a homosexual into consideration. By doing this, the counselor can determine whether or not there may be issues associated with their sexual orientation or coming out process that may be affecting other areas of their lives. Thus, the
Crime and Deviance Crimes and increasing criminal activities have become a major concern for the security enforcement agencies. They seek help from technology as well as social and psychological theories to prevent crimes and deal with them. The first priority of security agencies is to prevent crimes and the second priority is to control them by punishing the criminals so that they become an example for the society. This paper
Social science researchers can use either qualitative or quantitative strategies to develop informed and timely answers to their research questions, but these two approaches involve analyzing fundamentally different data sets. On the one hand, qualitative researchers can use various methods such as case studies, ethnographic studies, phenomenological studies, grounded theory, narrative and/or content analyses (Neuman, 2009). On the other hand, social science researchers can use quantitative strategies such as observational
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