1. Define the following terms in one to two sentences each? Ethnocentrism, hate crime, stereotype.
Ethnocentrism can be defined as an individual’s belief that the ethnic group or cultural they identify with is superior to all others. “The ethnocentric person judges other groups and other cultures by the standards of his or her own group” (Schaefer 34).
A hate crime is a crime, usually involving violence or intimidation committed against others based partially or entirely on race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation or membership in another social group.
“Stereotypes unreliable, exaggerated generalizations about all members of a group that do not take individual differences into account” (Schaefer 40). Stereotypes can be positive, but are usually associated with negative beliefs or actions such as racial profiling.
2. Differentiate between prejudice and discrimination.
While prejudice and discrimination are closely related, the terms are not interchangeable. Prejudice is a negative attitude, feelings, thoughts or beliefs toward an entire category of people. There are two important factors that are present in the definition of prejudice, and they are attitude and entire category (Schaefer 35).
“Discrimination is the denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups because of prejudice or for other arbitrary reasons” (Schaefer 35). Discrimination differs from prejudice as it refers to the behavior or action usually based on prejudice rather than just thoughts.
3. Briefly summarize the following theories of prejudice: scapegoating, authoritarian personality, exploitation, normative approach.
Scapegoating is when a person irrationally blames their failures on others, therefore not taking responsibility themselves. The “scapegoating theory says that prejudiced people believe they are society’s victims” (Schaefer 38). It is always someone else’s fault that things do not go their way and the person “… transfers the responsibility for failure to some vulnerable group” (Schaefer 38).
A psychological construct called the authoritarian personality believes that a person’s upbringing can result in intolerance as an adult. The rigid personality type dislikes people who are different. “A child with an authoritarian upbringing obeyed and then later treated others as he or she had been raised (Schaefer 39).
The exploitation theory involves one group of people, usually the majority, using another group of people for their own economic gain. “Racial prejudice is often used to justify keeping a group in a subordinate economic position’ (Schaefer 39). Exploitation is seen when a minority group competes with the majority group. “Karl Marx emphasized exploitation of the lower class as an integral part of capitalism” (Schaefer 39).
According to Petrosino (2003: 10) hate crimes can be defined as "..the victimisation of minorities due to their racial or ethnic identity by members of the majority. " (p. 4) Hate crimes are also known as bias-motivated crimes because the crimes are motivated by a bias towards a person or persons including but not limited to those of a different gender, ethnic background, religion, or sexual orientation. Hate crimes are quite serious and have severe and long lasting-effects for the targeted victims. Due to the severe nature of the crimes many countries have strict laws in place to punish offenders. Hate crime is not widely discussed in Canadian society because it has not been a prominent issue until now. “..The extent of the problem in Canada was limited to a small number of persons, such activity could create a climate of malice and destructiveness to the values of our society (Cohen Report, 1966:24). As a result of the committee’s efforts, Parliament amended the Criminal Code in 1970, thus rendering hate propaganda as a punishable offence (Law Reform Commission of Canada, 1986:7)
Many people know what prejudice and discrimination are, but some of us do not. Prejudice is known as the attitude which includes behavioral, cognitive and affective. This attitude is incorrect and is not justified because it usually deals with negative thoughts of a person. These thoughts can be based on any reasons, for example, it could be because of their social class, race, gender, sexuality, or anything else. Discriminitation on the other hand, is very similar, but involves taking action because of those thoughts. There have been many different types of discrimination, but the main one's are racial, age, and gender discrimination.
Scapegoating is the action of blaming a person for things they did not do. Scapegoating can, and often is used as a form of self defense. Many Children learn to scapegoat in order to push blame to someone besides themselves. Most adults don't completely drop that habit as they get older because just like kids, adults don't like to put blame upon themselves. In life there are many examples of scapegoating, for example one case of scapegoating was Hitler and the Nazis. That was a perfect example of scapegoating, Hitler and the Germans used their power to blame the economic and social problems of their nation on the Jewish population. This allowed Hitler to place his nation's problems on somebody besides for himself. Just like a child, Hitler
Exposition: Determining Hate Crimes?Hate based on race, religion and sexual orientation exist within any cultural rich societies. When this type of hate fuels a person into taking violent actions upon those they hate, it is called a hate crime; a topic which the American public is seriously concerned about. It has been a widely discussed subject on the media, and often debates of whether or not a crime should be attributed with hate are the center for discussion.Does hate crime imply on any case when a person is convicted for inflicting damage on someone "different"? It is often difficult to set a benchmark for measuring sufficiency of hate as a cause to label it in front of crime. The term can be conveniently stretched and squeezed by people with different ideas and biases.
Society consists of many different sociological groups. These groups involve people of diverse races, religions, and more. Unfortunately, hate crimes happen when groups become angry or frustrated towards each other. These groups are formed mostly during times of economic struggle or even social change. Hate groups continue to be a problem in our society. A group believes that the reason for a specific problem is only the fault of another racial, religious, or other group. The most common forms of crime in our society are due to hatred. Hate crimes are defined as a crime motivated by hatred, prejudice, or intolerance of somebody’s race, religion, ethnicity, political affiliation, disability, and/or sexual orientation. Plenty of hate crimes happen due to the fact that someone is different from someone else.
The dictionary defines a hate crime as "any of various crimes... when motivated by hostility to the victim as a member of a group (as one based on color, creed, gender, or sexual orientation)." It can be difficult to distinguish a hate crime from other crimes. Usually, a hate crime is detected by a background investigation of the accused person or eyewitness reports of the crime. In some cases, circumstantial evidence shows the intent of the accused.
Discrimination is a prejudicial treatment of an individual based on an opinion that a discriminated person is a member of a particular social group. It is a treatment in the way that is worse than the way people are usually treated (Lee, 2003). Such an attitude involves denial of privileges or opportunities usually used by other members of society, negative attitude to discriminated people or even exclusion of a person from social life. A specific type of discrimination is employment disc...
From the reading I learned prejudice is when a person attaches negative emotion to a certain group of people that is not based on facts. Prejudice has two levels cognitive or affective where the cognitive is thinking and feeling prejudice while affecting is actually doing prejudice actions. Discrimination is also discussed in chapter one. Discrimination is unequal behavior or treatment of a person based on them being a member of a group. An example of discrimination would be not getting selected for a job because you are African
Hate crimes has become an increasing problem here in the united states ranging from racial hatred to gender discrimination but what are hate crimes? According to Dr. Jack McDevitt, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston Hate crimes are message crimes, Hate crimes are defined as crimes that are violent act against people, property, or organizations because of the group to which they belong or identify with. The coined term “hate crimes” was first used No matter how many different definitions there are for hate crimes but we all can agree that hate crimes are wrong and immoral. But within hate crimes they are many different types of hate crimes. One of the main reasons that people commit hate crimes would have to be because of racial hatred. Racial Hatred is a major factor in hate crimes with African Americans being the main target. According to the FBI database in 1996, 4,831 out of the 7,947 such crimes reported to the FBI, or 60%, were promulgated because of race, with close to two-thirds (62%) targeting African Americans.
To many's surprises, a "Hate" crime is not really about hate but about bias or prejudice although definitions differ from state to state essentially hate crimes refer to criminal conduct motivated by prejudice. This preconceived opinion is not based or reason or actual experience. many people are lead to commit hate crimes from a thrill seeking feel to having the feeling of needing to be defensive in their view "defending their turf" they feel as though they have to fight something when there is nothing to fight
...ith these differencesAs Barbara McQuade said, “A hate crime is different than a simple assault because it is an attack on not just one individual victim, but an attack on everyone who shares a particular characteristic.”As presented in this paper, hate crime isn’t new but isn’t talked about too much either. These crimes are not taken as serious as they should be. Attention was brought to what hate crime is, who commits them, at what ages they are being committed, how often they occur, which states have the most and which people are targeted the most. Hate crimes are done every day and it isn’t taken seriously. It can happen to anyone in this country at any time. After reading this paper there should be enough information gathered to try and avoid these crimes. It is also shown that participating to try and put an end to these crimes would be very helpful to society.
A hate crime is a crime motivated by several reasons that include religion, sexual orientation, race, nationality, gender, etc. It typically involves physical violence, intimidation, threats and other means against the individual that is being targeted. It is a crime against the person and it can have a devastating impact on the victim. Several argue that hate crimes should be punished more severely. However, it is not a crime to hate someone or something if it does not lead to some sort of criminal offense.
A hate crime can be defined as a crime driven by sexual, racial or other prejudice, usually one including violence.
campus, you might find there some additional resources for reporting it. After you entered the police station, you need to say to the responding officer that you would like to report specifically a hate crime. You should also be prepared, and have with you your notes if you have done them after the incident. Any evidence should be brought with you as well. While reporting, you should provide as much details as you can, and explain what led you to believing that it was specifically a hate crime, and not any other. It would be helpful, if you took the name of the officer who responded to your reporting – you may need it further on to identify them or on the follow up on your report. When the officer is done writing the report, you should get
Ethnocentrism is a commonly used word in terms of social issues, ethnicity and ethnic relations. According to Anthropologist Ken Barger, “Ethnocentrism" is used to define an individual’s way of thinking and/or the judgements as to one group being inferior to their own. Everyone is ethnocentric as it cannot be avoided, however ethnocentrism can also be negative and defined as: making false assumptions about others ways based on their limited experience and cultural