Understanding Hate Crimes: Causes and Consequences

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What is classified as a Hate Crime?
The persecution of Jews in Germany by the Nazi, the 1921 race riot in Oklahoma against African Americans, the mass shooting against homosexual people at the Pulse night club in Orlando. Hate crimes have been occurring for many years and it is still happening today with the most recent incident at the Pulse night club in June of 2016. What they all have in common is hate, hate towards race and sexuality. Hate crimes are crimes that carry some type of prejudice towards certain social groups. Perpetrators target victims because of their origin, religion, sexual preference, gender, or because of a disability. Hate crimes involve physical assault, damage to property, verbal harassment, or hate mail.
Examples of Hate Crimes
Hate crimes are done by people who stereotype others. They have the belief that because people are different they should be killed for being viewed as a threat or they blame all their problems on them. For example, the Holocaust in Germany where the Nazis viewed the Jewish people as an inferior race, as a reason for having lost World War I, and the cause of their economic crisis. Which made the Germans believe that the Jewish people were to not be considered people. The Holocaust happened because of the hate there was towards Jews and the anti-Semitic doctrine that was introduced by Adolf …show more content…

According to an article called Hate as an Aggravating Factor in Sentencing, “Seriousness, or the gravity of the offense, is typically treated as comprised of two complex elements: the wrongfulness/harmfulness of the offense and culpability/responsibility/blameworthiness of the offender.” (Al-hakim, 2012) In conclusion, Hate Crimes are crimes that are biased against religion, gender, or sexual preferences. They affect people as a community or individually. As a community or specific social group, it can ignite racial

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