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 ashington 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 legislation have passed: the Hate Crime Sentencing Enhancement Act; the Violence Against omen Act of 1998; the Church Arson Prevention Act of 1994; and the Equal Rights and Equal Dignity for Americans Act of 2003 (Shively, 3).
[Presently, in the week of April 23-27, 2012, a debate in the U.S. Senate regarding the reauthorization of the Violence Against omen Act shows how politics, ideology, and bias within the United States Congress can interfere with hate crime laws. Since the Violence Against….

Hate Crime Analysis Select group population target a hate crime ( selection start paper) rite a word analysis: • Provide a description specific factors serve basis victimization;, race, religion, sexual orientation • Identify applicable specific case examples.
hen considering hate in general, it appears that human beings are vulnerable to being influenced to discriminate others. Even though many have little to no reasons to discriminate against other groups, these people feel that it would only be normal for them to act in agreement with stereotypes and typically refrain from trying to act in disagreement with the majority. Hate is obviously something that people learn from others and it is important for society to devise strategies meant to educate individuals with regard to the attitudes that they need to employ toward stereotypes.

Specific factors that serve as basis for discrimination

Jewish individuals have been subjected to hate crimes for more than two thousand years….

Hate crimes incidents occur nationally between 6,000 and 8,000 times annually, and many be increased by traumatic national events. Hate crime rates spiked in 2001, but have steadily decreased since then, though hate crimes between religious groups have increased slightly. Most offenders are young and act more out of personal sentiment than organizational strategy, which may be why hate crimes in Pennsylvania are mainly centered around the two big cities of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Nationally hate crimes occur across the board and affect all races and most demographics, however in Lycoming county at least hate crimes do not appear to pose a significant reported problem.
Hate Crimes

ithin the last decades, criminal law has delineated a new subset of crime: the hate crime. Hate crimes are defined as any crime "committed against individuals or groups or property based on the real or perceived race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, national origin, or….

In the case of an extreme situation, such as the death or near death of another, intentionality is a clear indicator of culpability and should be constitutionally supported. The constitution is a litmus of the culture and open violation of the intentions of the constitution, i.e. To protect the rights of all should be an allowable designation for increased sanctions against those who perpetrate such crime.
Pros and Cons of Hate Crime Legislation:

The constitutionality of hate crime laws has been challenged almost since their inception, as the idea that a crime perpetrated to racial intent should not be considered any more heinous than one perpetrated against another, say for monetary gain. If the act is one of violence then according to a purely legalistic approach the acts are equal and should be treated as such. Yet, intention is often an aspect of legislation and rulings, one example is the designation….

3. 42 U.S.C.S. 13981 - the Violence Against Women Act of 1994

IV. Famous Hate Crimes

Matthew Shepard was attacked and killed by ussell Henderson and Aaron McKinney on October 12, 1998. The attack was motivated by Shepard's homosexuality.

The case brought national attention to the issue of hate crimes.

Shepard's killers were convicted of murder, but not charged with a hate crime because there was no Wyoming hate crime legislation at that time.

Brandon Teena was raped on December 24, 1993, and later murdered on December 31, 1993 by John Lotter and Marvin Nissen. Their attacks were motivated by Brandon's transgender status.

The story was the subject of the movie "Boys Don't Cry."

The criminal cases against the defendants are ongoing.

a. Nissen

1) Pled to being an accessory and testified against Lotter.

2) eceived a life sentence.

3) Appealed his sentence.

4) ecanted his testimony against Lotter on September 20, b. Lotter

1) Was convicted of murder.

2) eceived the death penalty.

3)….

Levin (1992, cited in Nolan & Akiyama, 1999) notes that police officers tend to identify crimes based on the severity of injury or the magnitude of property damage and not on the basis of motive.
There are many thinkers and writers that question the legitimacy of hate or bias crime laws on the basis that they violate a fundamental democratic principle by punishing individuals for their prejudiced thoughts and beliefs (Altman, 2001). The assumption is that the defendant had a bias motive for committing the offense and the motive consists solely of the defendant's thought. (Gellman, 1992). Therefore, it has been argued that bias crime laws are illegitimate because they punish motive. In addition, the fact that complicates things further is that the motive is inextricably tied to a certain set on political values and attitudes. Other writers have recognized that hate crime is a social construct, focusing on prejudice….

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 crimes, but might reflect a greater awareness and reporting of crimes. This is because hate crimes are based upon regular crimes. In fact, a hate crime is a "traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias" (FBI, 2013). These crimes can include petty crimes like vandalism to violent crimes like rape and murder. Therefore, these crimes have long been being committed with bias as a motive, but only being reported as the underlying offense. In….

Hate Crimes
The trend of media coverage and reporting has taken a stereotypical and racist dimension over the years and hence having a bias on some of the races. This is in particular reference to the crime rate and crime coverage. It has been an observed trend that crimes committed by African-Americans on whites are not given as much coverage and emphasis as those committed by whites against the African-Americans, though they could be of equal seriousness and driven by the same motive and produced same results.

This can be said to be some racial stereotype, which is a fixed belief or idea that most people have about a given group of people or particular person or a given thing, though it may not be necessarily true or based on reality (Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, 2011). These are social constructs that evolve over a long period of time and engrave themselves into….

Hate Crime Enhancements -- Two Sides of the Argument
This project represents the evolution of opinion as a function of the process of a strictly academic exercise. At the outset of the project, the writer maintained a specific belief: namely, that hate crime enhancement policies are fundamentally unjustified. It was the process of formulating a counterargument to the writer's position that ultimately resulted in a change of opinion. The writer is now of the opinion that hate crime enhancement is a policy that is justified in principle and not substantially different from various other types of distinctions made in American civil and criminal law with respect to the consideration of motivation as an element of moral responsibility and criminal culpability.

The Argument against Hate Crime Enhancement Legislation

One of the main purposes of law is to encourage behaviors that are beneficial to the many members of society and to discourage behaviors that are….

It is a generalization based on biased or insufficient information, which creates stereotypes. Moreover, generalizations are based on emotions, making them difficult to change even with evidence to the contrary. Stereotypes represent a set of ideas based on distortion, exaggeration, and oversimplification that are applied to all members of a group. As a result, a mental paradigm is created to justify unethical behavior against minority groups. Surprisingly, people who do not fit the stereotype are still categorized because it is easier justify the prejudice than to reexamine their way of thinking. It is important to note that one who is prejudice does not necessarily lead to discrimination. In contrast, racism is an extreme form of prejudice that assumes superiority of one group over another; it is extreme because not only it not only unfairly judges one group, but it assumes one group is superior to another. Hence, racists believe….

Hate Crime
esponse to Bias-Motivated Violence

In the last three decades or so, nearly all American states have adopted a minimum of one statute, regarding a regulation for "hate crime." Such laws have assumed numerous forms, which include (C219 Lesson 9: Social Control -- Law Enforcement and Legal ecourse ):

• Laws prescribing criminal punishment for violation of civil rights;

• Specific "malicious harassment" and "ethnic intimidation" laws; and • Provisions of greater penalties in related laws already enacted for commission of an extant offense for prejudicial or bias reasons.

Several state statutes forbid organizational vandalism, religious objects' disfigurement or sacrilege, disturbance of or interference with religious worship, wearing masks or hoods, cross burning, distribution of ads and publications aimed at harassing specific groups in society, and secret society establishment (C219 Lesson 9: Social Control -- Law Enforcement and Legal ecourse ).

Social Control of Hate Crimes

Law enforcers at local, state, and federal levels have declared….

Hate Crimes Against African-Americans
The media has lots of potential to be agents of positive change in the society. One of the aspects that the media can easily put a tight grip on, for change, is stereotyping. Unfortunately, the same media has been implicated in the court of public opinion as being supportive of stereotypes. There is a host of factors and methods adopted by the media that help to promote such stereotyping (HOFFMANN, 22). Indeed, a lot of images of African-Americans and similar minorities are widely shaped by media. This essay explores how the media has portrayed African-Americans with regard to hate crimes against this minority group in the USA. It also seeks to examine how the media has interpreted the scenario included and how it portrays it to the public. There is a further search to establish how the general public reacts to the media portrayals of hate crimes….

hate crime" and discuss a research question regarding the term. Hate crimes are crimes against individuals or groups based on hatred or non-acceptance of their race, religious beliefs, or other issues. Are hate crimes protected as "free speech" by the First Amendment?
Hate crimes can be defined differently by each state with laws against hate crimes. These experts, James B. Jacobs and Jessica S. Henry, define hate crimes as "a crime against persons or property motivated in whole or in part by racial, ethnic, religious, gender, sexual orientation and other prejudices" (Jacobs and Henry). Because hate crimes can fall under different definitions, they can also be interpreted differently. One large question regarding hate crimes is their relationship to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees free speech to all Americans. Are hate crimes simply a First Amendment issue, or do they go much farther than free speech in….

criminal transgressions that are selected in hate crime laws contain, but are not restricted to, delinquencies against persons like aggravation, terroristic coercions, assault and criminalities against possessions or property like criminal trespass, criminal disruption and incendiarism. It may also comprise of defacement causing destruction to a church, synagogue, graveyard, morgue, and honoring to the dead, school, educational institution, other public buildings, courthouse, or any personal property situated within such spaces. This research papers highlights what is a hate crime, how states may vary in terms of designation of a hate crime and the impact it has on society. The main focus of this paper is to show what happens when designations becomes part of hate crime policy and action against hate crimes.
Introduction

A hate crime, typically defined by state law, encompasses acts of violence such as: terrorizations, aggravation, or bodily harm and is driven by preconception against someone's race, color,….

It has also been suggested that, in effect, this equality is relatively meaningless, because non-minorities are so much more rarely the victims of hate crimes, and that, therefore, these laws protect and benefit minorities more than they protect or benefit non- minorities. Ironically, the accurate analysis of this observation is precisely backwards:

the fact that minorities are so much more likely to be targeted by racially motivated crimes is hardly a reason to consider the laws that criminalize such conduct "unfair" to non-minorities. If anything, that reality only reinforces the absolute need for laws that prohibit racially motivated crimes. The fact of the matter is that minorities are much more likely to be the victims of racial hatred than are non-minorities, and that non- minorities are more often the perpetrators of racially motivated crimes than are individuals from minority backgrounds. Certainly, there are instances of racially motivated crimes perpetrated by minorities….