Hate
Is It Really a Crime
In the past couple of years “Hate Crimes” have been becoming more and more in the fore front of the news. We continue to hear about the different things that happen to someone based on their color, sexuality, ethnicity, cultural background, etc. Television programs such as the “Law and Order” series use the term “Hate Crimes” at least once in every program. We hear the term used to a great extent in local and national news broadcast. But, what does the government (USA) base its laws on? The following information was taken from the FBI’s web site on the Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR).
2006 Hate Crime Statistics http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2006/index.html
“Incidents and Offenses: The UCR Program collects data about both single-bias and multiple-bias hate crimes. For each offense type reported, law enforcement must indicate at least one bias motivation. A single-bias incident is defined as an incident in which one or more offense types are motivated by the same bias. A multiple-bias incident is defined as an incident in which more than one offense type occurs and at least two offense types are motivated by different biases.”
“Offenders: Reporting agencies identified 7,330 known offenders in 7,722 bias-motivated incidents in 2006. In the Uniform Crime Reporting Program, the term known offender does not imply that the suspect’s identity is known. The term indicates that some aspect of the suspect was identified, thus distinguishing the suspect from an unknown offender. Law enforcement agencies specify the number of offenders and, when possible, the race of the offender or offenders as a group.”
“Victims: In the Uniform Crime Reporting Program, the victim of a hate crime may be an individual, a business, an institution, or society as a whole. Nationwide in 2006, law enforcement agencies reported that there were 9,652 victims of hate crimes. Of these victims, ten were victimized in two separate multiple-bias incidents.
Location Type: Reporting agencies may specify the location of an offense within a hate crime incident as one of 25 location designations. Information regarding the location of the 7,722 hate crime incidents reported in 2006 indicated that:”
31.0 percent happened in or near residences or homes.
18.0 percent took place on highways, roads, alleys, or streets.
12.2 percent occurred in colleges or schools.
6.1 percent occurred in parking lots or garages.
3.9 percent happened in churches, synagogues, or temples.
2.5 percent took place in commercial office buildings.
2.1 percent occurred in bars or nightclubs.
11.0 percent occurred in other or unknown locations.
13.2 percent of the incidents occurred in the remaining specified location categories (e.g., public building, air/bus/train terminal, convenience store) or in multiple locations
The question here is what do you the average Joe think of when you hear the words “Hate Crime?”
Can we really in act legislation on how someone feels toward a specific race of people, someone’s ethnicity, or sexuality, etc?
Are we going in the wrong direction with hate legislation; is there another direction that would be better then filling up our jails with offenders of “Hate Crimes.?
Hate crimes are being placed ahead of other crimes. One example is if you go out and throw a brick through the window of a store, and cause other damage to this store; should you be brought up on vandalizing and destruction of private property or a hate crime incident. First, let look at race, you are a Black and the store owner is Koran. Second, let look at the neighborhood, it considered primary Black. Third, as there been a problem in the past with Black on Koran crime, or the other way around? And, finally what is the greater offense, Hate or Vandalizing?
The greater question is was the vandalizing done because of hate or just someone being mean? How do you determine what crime was committed? Now I understand hate crime when dealing with specific groups (skinheads, etc.). For example: What I am really looking for is how do they determine if a rape was a hate crime, or just some idoit out to a muse himself/herself?
After reading through the tons of information on this topic it is still unclear to me as to the determining factor in what makes a hate crime. If you want to learn more about this subject go to “Google” and type in “Hate Crimes.”
Here is one last thought; is the term “Hate Crime” becoming the new term for “Terrorism.?”
Lee
