Why Hate Crimes Occur

Term Paper # 116430

Criminology

A look at the motivations behind hate crimes and how they can be prevented.

919 words () | 6 sources | APA | 2009 United States

Paper Summary:

The paper relates that a hate crime can be committed against any race, gender preference, or religious belief. The paper explains that people are afraid of what is perceived as different, so they will use any type of forcible action to prevent change. The paper then examines who can play a role in the prevention and education of hate crimes.

From the Paper:

"In today's day and age, many people would believe that hate crimes are notional representation of the past. Unfortunately, this phenomenon has been masked by the ongoing war with Iraq and the coverage of these atrocities and does not receive proper attention. A hate crime can be committed against any race, gender preference, or religious belief. In a brief definition, it has been stated that, "...an ordinary crime becomes a hate crime when the offenders chose a victim because of some underlying, differentiating characteristic" (Harlow, 2005). The crimes do still occur, and it is up to society to find the root causes and take aggressive action against the perpetrators. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the hate crime offenses committed in 2005 were 8,804, with the offenses perpetrated by known offenders upwards of 6,804 (2005)."

Sample of Sources Used:

Center for International Conflict Resolution. (2007). Columbia University. http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/cicr/.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2005). Incidents, Victims, Offenses, and Known Offenders by Bias Motivation. http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2005/table1.htm.
Green, D., McFalls, L., & Smith, J., (2001). Hate Crime; An Emergent Research Agenda. Annual Review of Sociology. Vol. 27. Pgs. 479-504. http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.479?cookieSet=1&journalCode=soc.
Harlow, Caroline. (2005). Hate Crime Reported by Victims and Police. National Victimization Survey and Uniform Crime Reporting. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/hcrvp.pdf.
Rice, Fredric. (2007). Antigay Hate Crimes Increase, Have Serious Effects on Victims. http://www.skeptictank.org/agayhate.htm.