Essay about recent hate crimes and statistic Essay

Lifeless bodies with slashed throats were found in the mountains of Virginia nearly sixer years ago. This is quite a disturbing image the unfortunate result of a scorn crime. What exactly is a hatred crime? The American psychological Association defines hate crimes as violent acts against people, property, or organizations because of the group to which they belong or identify with (1). The different groups usually involved include homointimates, ethnic groups, and righteousness affiliations.Dr. Jack McDevitt, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston, said hate crimes are forms of messages the offender wants to send to members of certain groups letting them know they are unwelcome in that neighborhood, community, develop or workplace (APA, 1).According to CNN.com, Darrell David Rice of Columbia, Maryland, was found guilty of committing the 1996 slayings of hikers Julianne Marie Williams and Laura Lollie Winans, who were the girls in the opening disturbing image. Ric e is serving an 11-year sentence in federal prison in Petersburg, Virginia, for attempting to abduct and kill a female bicyclist in the same park in 1997. U.S. Attorney General bathroom Ashcroft called the killings of Williams and Winans hate crimes and said Rice could also receive the death penalty, in addition to the present sentence (Frieden, 1).Examples of hate crimes provided by Stephen Wesslers Addressing Hate Crimes half-dozen Initiatives include (3)the dragging death of African-American James Byrd, Jr., in Jasper, Texasthe deadly attack on Matthew Sheppard, a gay student in Laramie, Wyomingthe shooting act targeting minority citizens in Chicagothe shootings of children at a Jewish community center in Los Angelesthe murder of Joseph Santos Ileto, a Filipino-American mail carrierA calculate done by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) give ins that 7,947 hate crime incidents were reported. In 1995, a comparison of states showed that California was at the top of the c harts with 1,751 incidents reported, and Florida stood with 164 incidents (2). The total come of hate crimes only decreased by less than a hundred between 1995 and 1999. While these numbers may seem relatively small, the Southern impoverishment Law Center has posted more dramatic statistics every hour someone commits a hate crime, every day eight blacks, triple whites, three gays, three Jews and one Latino become hate crime victims, and every week a cross is burned (1).In order to prevent the hate crimes from occurring, different things are being done in order to prevent and deal with the hate crimes. In schools, the Anti-Defamation League websites suggests planning ahead by doing the by-line (1)1.Work with your school administration to establish a plan for responding promptly to hate incidents and hate crimes.2.Educate school staff on how to recognize hate-motivated incidents and hate crimes.3.Establish procedures for reporting hate-motivated incidents/crimes.4.Establish school policies which clearly indicate that hate-motivated behavior will not be tolerated.On a wider scale, since the 1980s research on hate crimes has increased, especially from those in the field of criminology and law enforcement. There focus is primarily on reporting the frequency of the problem and preparing criminal justice responses to it. While many hate motivated crimes go unreported, the number of reported incidents is up. However, with special training, people are prepared to deal with the situations.According to Wessler, the first professionals to respond to the scene of a hate crime are police officers. How they act in the situation will affectthe outcome of the incident. Wessler stated, law enforcement agencies have a pivotal role in responding to, investigating, prosecuting, and preventing hate crimes. knowledge is given to the police officers in order to carry out their role. Wessler said the training includes how to recognize and investigate potential hate crimes, have c lear protocols on how to respond to hate violence, and develop innovative programs for preventing the hate crimes.Along with the professional training of police personnel, laws against hate crimes have been enforced in some states. As of 1999, there are only eleven states that do not have hate crime laws South Carolina, Hawaii, Wyoming, New York, Kentucky, Rhode Island, New Mexico, Kansas, Arkansas, Georgia and Indiana. The anti-hate laws may not be well known but there are some out there. For example, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act provides assistance to state and local law enforcement agencies and amend federal law to streamline the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes. This bill will change the already existing law, adding crimes against sexual orientation, gender, and disability. This law also allows authority to respond to all crimes covered by the existing law, meaning crimes based on race, color, national origin, and religion (1).The number of ha te crimes is slowly being decreased and the number of laws against hate crimes is slowly being increased, but the truth is, they are still out there. It may seem out of the question to eliminate all the hate crimes that are occuring, but with more research, training, and handling each situation as they arise more seriously, America is slowly on its way to eliminating the problem of hate crimes.Works CitedAmerican Psychological Association. 1998.Anti-Defamation League. 1999.Federal Bureau of Investigation. Uniform Crime Reports. 1995.Frieden, Terry. 10 Apr. 2002.National Gay and lesbian Task Force. NGLTF Communications Department. 25 Sep. 2002.Southern Poverty Law Center.Wessler, Stephen. Addressing Hate Crimes Six Initiatives That Are Enhancing the Efforts of Criminal Justice Practitioners. Feb. 2000.