Hate crimes in this country are indeed at an all time high. According to the FBI, "a hate crime is a criminal offense motivated by bias, particularly against a given race, religion, disability, ethnicity, nationality, or sexual orientation

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Hate Crimes    

What to do about Hate Crimes in America

Wm. Guy Harvey II

Student AIU Online

SOC210-0504B-02

Dale Howard

November 26, 2005


What to do About Hate Crimes in America

Hate crimes in this country are indeed at an all time high. According to the FBI, “a hate crime is a criminal offense motivated by bias, particularly against a given race, religion, disability, ethnicity, nationality, or sexual orientation” ("Hate Crimes," 2004). The FBI recorded some 9,730 hate crimes in 2001 from approximately 12,000 police agencies around the country. This is almost a 21% jump in reported hate crimes from 2000 ("ADL Calls for Expanded Education & Training to Address Significant Increase in Hate Crimes Reported to FBI," 2002).

The majority of hate crimes committed each year is surprisingly not committed by people involved with hate groups but by individual people. The average person to commit a hate crime is someone who is said to resent a groups growing economic power. These people are said to engage in what is known as scapegoating. Others who commit hate crimes could feel a threat to there homes and/or property. Desegregation of public housing is thought to be a good example of this type of motivation. Lastly, you have what are referred to as thrill seekers and the mission offenders. Thrill seekers are the type of people randomly target random people of minority group to harass or assault. Mission offenders are the type of people who feel they have to wipe out a group of people because they believe they are evil. However, most offenders are just people that believe in stereotypes and will act spontaneously (Holden, 1999).

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Hate crimes can be caused by any number of reasons but most tend to be caused by one common factor. Fear, fear of what we do not know will cause us to do strange things and in this case including committing hate crimes. Fear of what we do not know is often the fault of ignorance. Hate crimes can also be caused by other outside influences such as peers, family, media, and political leaders ("Hate Violence Today," 1992).

Most people hold the opinions of their friends in high regards. Most people who have been involved with a hate group ...

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