Hate Crimes In The 20th Century

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During the 20th century, many civil rights acts came into play in hopes of creating more equality, such as the right to vote, attend school with the white children and geographical area to live in for the African Americans. Towards the end of the 20th century, biased motivated crimes increased. President Roosevelt prompted the change and the civil rights Act of 1957. This act prohibited any individual from infringing on their right to vote. During this time, it also brought light to the investigations of hate crime and bias motived crimes. Congress passed the Hate Crime Statistics Act to assist in reporting official statistics of crime in America. The collection of data came from the Anti-Defamation League, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (Lawrence, 2002). Once the data began to demonstrate perceived bias crimes, concern grew and it was recognized as a social problem in the United States. It is difficult to compare the data retrieved during 20th century because prior to this time there was no data collected. The reason why hate crimes and types of bias motivated violence continued to go unnoticed is because, the crime needed to be reported. If it is not reported, then no action will be taken. The Justice Department study finds that 2 of 3 …show more content…

Laws continue to become protective of victims whether it is for hate crime or not. As time passes, more research will be conducted and laws will be created and modified. An example is, if a boss decides he no longer need your services, so he lets you go, which is no crime at all. But, if he decides to do so because he does not believe your race should being working for the company, it then becomes a hate crime when they verbalize that reason. That boss can be charged with a violation title IV of a Civil Rights

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