Summary Of The Hate Crime Don Gorton

In the article, “The Hate Crime,” Don Gorton discusses the impact of hate crime on society by providing a scene from Brokeback Mountain as an example. Gorton focuses on hate crime as crime motivated by the sexual orientation of an individual. He further explains the connection between hate crime and terrorism. In comparison, both terrorism and hate crime send a message to a specific group of people and implement fear of expressing one’s choice of lifestyle. Fear arises from predecessor acts of violence against the targeted group and leads towards misery from hiding. However, change can be achieved throughout time as individuals fight for acceptance and eventually change the way society goes on about certain issues such as homophobia (Gorton,

2006, 13-14).
An underlying assumption of hate crime in Don Gorton’s “The Hate Crime” is the motivation behind the crime.

Gorton focuses on homophobia as motivation behind sexual orientation hate crime. Homophobia in itself is just the dislike of homosexuals, but there are other factors that contribute to this type of prejudice and discrimination. Take religion as an example. Many christians argue that relationships, especially marriage, should be between a man and a woman. The result in most cases is a barrication of opportunities for LGBT people. However, there are religious extremists that go further and begin to harm these people in order to isolate and keep them hidden from society. Not only does this show that there is a deeper motivation behind hate crimes associated with dislike of homosexuality, it also demonstrates that other groups that are often subjected to the same injustice can also contribute to other types of hate crime. In other words, hate crime victims can also be the perpetrators. Another underlying assumption is the involvement of people to stop hate crime. Even when hate crime offenders are caught there is always the possibility that some officers express their same views. Selective enforcement, as the phrase itself describes, consists of law enforcement officials choosing how to deal with a crime. Sometimes personal beliefs conflict with one’s duty to serve. In that case, if a police officer, or even society, let's hate crime happen with no serious repercussions, then it shows others that it is justifiable to act out their

hatred.
In a perfect world the solution to the underlying assumption behind hate crime would be to eradicate biases, prejudice, etc. and treat each other as equals. However, it would not be possible unless members of society strip away their own beliefs, values and norms to a degree where everyone accepts anyone. Even though, there are laws in place, it is not enough to combat hate crime. For example, there are laws that punish those who are discovered to have committed a crime due to bias against gay people. Even then it is hard to prove the individual’s motivation and even stop it from happening again. According to Anderson (2002), in order to prevent hate crime, both the government and citizens have to make a commitment to address the issues at hand and provide effective prevention practices (p.144). In turn, having a unified society teaches acceptance and encourages freedom of expression with no fear of violence. It does not mean give into someone else’s views. It means welcome other points of views and focus on the similarities members of society share with each other instead of targeting their differences.