There are many different types of crimes, that happen all over the world. One of these types of crimes is hate crimes based on religion. These crimes usually happen between members of opposing religions, like Christianity and Islam. There are several different components that go into hate crimes and several concepts on how to prevent or limit these crimes. Hate crimes are crimes motivated by racial, sexual, or other prejudice, and typically involve violence. Religious hate crimes come from a pre-conceived prejudice against a religion that varies from a person’s own belief. These hate crimes happen because the people or societies committing them are not resisting ethnocentrism. This is because people of one religion view their religion as superior …show more content…
The perpetrators of religion-based hate crimes do not understand the religions they are committing violent acts towards. These people or societies believe they understand the religion and are right in executing crimes against it, but what they do not understand is although their religions are different, they are still similar. There are many similarities between different religions, but it is not the similarities that give way to violence, only the differences and how the religion as a whole is interpreted. Everyone interprets information differently, so if a person is trying to understand a religion, he or she is not a part of, it can be interpreted inaccurately. By interpreting the religion incorrectly, the societies feel justified in committing hate crimes because they view the religion in a skewed manner and assume that the religion is corrupt and not peaceful but is full of hate and dangerously impure …show more content…
Schools should teach children cultural and religious acceptance to prevent them from judging cultures and religions through ethnocentrism, instead of cultural relativism. By creating government programs, that state all schools must educate their children on cultural and religious acceptance, the majority of children will grow up with a better understanding of different cultures and religions. These children will not grow up thinking their religion is better than another and decide to eradicate people whose religious views differ from their own. Also, children should be taught the similarities and differences between religions, so they have a better understanding of someone else’s religion. Education breeds acceptance and by teaching kids to accept that people have different religious beliefs, it should help limit and reduce violent hate crimes based on religion. It will also help to prevent these hate crimes that stem from fear of a certain religious group because the educated children will grow up with an understanding that one individual is not a complete representative of an entire group. Another way to resolve these crimes is by explaining that one religion is not better than another and that while religion is important it should not be used to control people. Religion is supposed to be a way to explain the unknown, not a way to control people
The punishment of a crime should not be determined by the motivation for the crime, yet that is exactly what hate crime legislation does. It places emphasis on a crime for the wrong reasons. Hate crimes victimize more than just the victims, and this is why the punishments are more severe, but Sullivan argues that any crime victimizes more than the victims. He suggests that random crimes with no prejudice in place can be perceived as something even more frightening, as the entire community feels threatened instead of just a group. Proven in Sullivan’s article is the worthlessness of the “hate” label. I would agree that it only serves to further discriminate, instead of achieving the peace and equality that it pretends to stand
Hate crimes are terrible things that are becoming more and more common in America because people don’t like the way they look or feel. The purpose of the “ Debate: What is a Hate Crime” is to teach people of a crime that is becoming quite important in the society.
Again, the actual crime should be punished not the reasoning behind it. Murder is murder, robbery is robbery, rape is rape, regardless of motive. For example, Person A and Person B both assault innocent people. But while beating the life out of his victim, Person B calls him a "Nigger." His crime is considered a hate crime. Consequently, his crime will receive harsher punishment. Despite why the crime took place, the point is that a crime took place. No matter why the victim is chosen, he or she was still harmed, the family is still going to grieve, and someone must be punished. Whether a person is killed for money or drugs or out of hate or prejudice, the fact still remains that he or she has been killed. With hate crime laws, the hate is being looked at, more so than the crime itself. Even though hate is a terrible thing to have in your heart, all Americans have the right to hate whatever or who ever they want. Besides, if officials start punishing hate or unholy thoughts, they might as well make a new category of crime— thought crime. If this line of thinking were acted upon, then half of America would be behind bars.
There are several reasons why offenders commit hate crimes, they vary from case to case, however, one key element is fear which is caused by ignorance. The offenders fear the unknown and the competition they feel that exists, them vs. the ‘others’. When fear is accompanied by other factors it could potentially lead to a violent crime. “The
Hate crimes are done too frequently in the United States. Although we have laws that supposedly regulate them, many people still feel the need to commit acts of violence on people that are different than them. Many of these crimes originate with some sort of hate speech. People get ideas from other people, passed down from previous generations.
The term hate crime first appeared in the late 1980’s as a way of understanding a racial incident in the Howard Beach section of New York City, in which a black man was killed while attempting to evade a violent mob of white teenagers, shouting racial epithets. Although widely used by the federal government of the United States, the media, and researchers in the field, the term is somewhat misleading because it suggests incorrectly that hatred is invariably a distinguishing characteristic of this type of crime. While it is true that many hate crimes involve intense animosity toward the victim, many others do not. Conversely, many crimes involving hatred between the offender and the victim are not ‘hate crimes’ in the sense intended here. For example an assault that arises out of a dispute between two white, male co-workers who compete for a promotion might involve intense hatred, even though it is not based on any racial or religious differences... ...
A hate crime is an act of aggression against an individual's actual or perceived race, ethnicity, religions, disability, sexual orientation, or gender. Examples include assault and battery, vandalism, or threats which involve bias indicators - pieces of evidence like bigoted name-calling or graffiti.
An arson is an act of burning down a building, and a hate crime is a crime that's committed because of hatred for a specific religion or group. As mentioned before, the churches that were burned down in the south were considered as hate crimes, and those churches were for black people. On May 20, 2012, a 17 year old white man named Jean-Claude Bridges burned down a church in Henry County, Virginia because all the people who attended there were black. “'Mr....
In conclusion, Heidi Hurd did a passable job in explaining both parts of the discussion. Based on her article I have come to the conclusion that this is a topic not easily solved. With every argument that the people in favor of hate crime legislation those against are able to oppose it with their own. It is simple not possible to generalize case because although they may be similar they are never the same. Discrimination, hate, and prejudice has always been and will continue to be a topic discussed for many years.
Since the United States of America and long with the whole world is filled with diversity there will always be conflicts about believes and feelings towards each other. Many people have their believes and keep them to themselves. Then there are the type of people that feel they have to put their believes into actions and hurt others or destroy things to get their point across. These believes that hurt and destroy others things and lives are called hate crimes. Hate crimes are becoming more and more common everyday. FBI statistics show that the frequency hate crimes in America are increasing as the frequency regular crimes in America have been decreasing.
There are both state and federal laws that prohibit hate crimes, but proving an assailant committed a crime in prejudice is very difficult. Any type of crime can call for some form of punishment, from fines and short prison stays for misdemeanors to long term imprisonment for felonies. Once it has been reviled that an accused willfully committed an offense, proof must be given that indicates the crime was influenced by prejudice against a specific characteristic in order to show that it was also a hate crime. When this can be proven, the harshness of the crime automatically increases. People often wonder why hate crime punishment is harsher than for crimes that are not motivated by any type of bias. The basic reason for this is that most crimes are directed at an individual, but hate crimes are against an entire community. A burglar who breaks into a random home does so for personal gain, and usually doesn’t even know who lives in the home they are invading. Conversely, a person who chooses a victim based on a particular bias is singling out a ch...
Every state, culture, and society in the world has some form of religion. The most popular religions in the world today are Christianity, Buddhism, and the Muslim religions. Members of every religion follow some form of philosophy or ideology that shape their thinking and behaviors. One common thing about the existing religions is the presence of a supreme being. People misinterpret existing religious ideologies serving their personal interests that at times turn out to cause war. Religious ideologies brainwash populations who end up acting violently in different deviant forms (Richardson, 518). Religions use specific ideologies to make people living in a society violent to peaceful members who may fight back in self-defense.
Hate crime is still being committed today and many believe that it would benefit victims and communities if hate crimes were punished more severely. However, hate crimes should not be punished more severely than other crimes that are motivated for other reasons; although the motivation (personal belief) and violence that constitute a hate crime are horrendous, criminals should be prosecuted for their wrongdoing, not for their beliefs. The idea that criminals should be punished more severely than crimes that are motivated by greed, anger, revenge is not acceptable. The potential motivations that were just given can constitute several crimes, like, murder. The issue (which, in my opinion, makes a good argument) is that it ‘’creates complicated moral problems by making it appear as if a murder is "worse" when committed because of the victim's race, religion, or sexual orientation.’’ (Hate crime laws, 2014) Murder is one the worst crimes that can be committed and it can have several motives and reasons behind it. Allowing hate crimes to be punished more severely or stating that hate crime is more ‘’aggressive’’ and ‘’brutal’’ is not fair to other victims and treats them
Today we have looked at the problem known as hate crimes and the varied causes which keep it in existence. We have also discussed some solutions to this act of hate.
Religion and Crime are universal social processes, but first they may seem sovereign, even conflicting, social processes involving a separation conflict, disaster and disagreement; religion implies unity, peace and tranquility. However, the crime can be comprehensive and religion can move actors to challenge and negate the social and political order. Therefore, following Lewis Cosers observation that all social life "always involves harmony and conflict, attraction and compulsion, love and hate," the analysis shows a similar contrast similarities between religion and crime, which can be observed at all levels of the social structure: persons, groups, social classes, societies and civilizations.