Victim Of A Hate Crime example essay topic

"Hate Crimes" There are many different hate crimes going on in the world today, most people don't know this. Hate crimes are violent acts against people, property, or organizations because of the group which they belong to. A hate crime can range from a simple assault with no weapon to aggravated assault, rape, and sometimes even murder. There are laws against hate crimes, but yet people still act in them. In 1996 alone, there were 8,759 hate crimes in the United States reported to the FBI. Hate crimes can also be called Bias crimes.

Many people think that people that commit hate crimes are all "skin heads" or Nazis. The sorry truth is that only five percent of the people that commit hate crimes are in a organized group. These crimes are carried out by usually young people who don't see anything wrong with their actions. These young people most of the time are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. They do these hate crimes usually because the person is "different" then everyone else (Herek), but I say who are they to judge on who is normal, and who is different.

The biggest reason why people commit these hate crimes today is homosexuality. People that are gay or lesbians choose there lifestyle and should not have to put up with people making fun of them or even beating them up just because they chose this way of life. Some teenagers will beat a gay man up just because they think he looked at them. Some teens also assault them just to feel "strong". Lesbian and gay victims suffer more serious psychological effects from hate crimes than they do from other kinds of criminal injury (Green). Another common reason why people commit these crimes is religious discrimination.

Most religious hate crimes are acts of vandalism, but personal attacks also are not uncommon. Eighty seven percent of these hate crimes are against Jews (Mcdevvit). We all know the biggest hate crimes of all time was when the Nazis held the holocaust. Jews put up with a lot in their lives. They have, in the past, been barred from schools, entering certain professions, holding certain jobs, and even living in a certain neighborhood.

Although we have passed laws to prevent these acts from happening and they may not happen as much as they used to, but they are still around. Race, by far, is the most determinant of hate crimes of all time (Dunbar). African Americans are the group that is assaulted or taunted the most. The crimes that people commit has not changed much since the 19th century. These people still vandalize and sometimes even bomb churches, burning crosses on homes lawn and also murder. Out of the eight thousand hate crimes reported to the FBI in 1996 almost five thousand of them were committed because of race (Herek).

The (Ku Klux Klan) were people who wore all white with huge hoods made it there job to make black peoples lives miserable as can be. They were the meanest group of people to commit hate crimes by far in my opinion. A person that is new to a country or a "immigrant" is sometimes a victim of a hate crime. People commit the hate crimes because they think that they do not belong in there country. These people also think that there country will not be as good as a place to live in if people with different ethics live there. Attacks on Hispanics is very common in the Los Angeles area (Dunbar).

Today there is a lot of discrimination against Arab-Americans just because of the attacks on the U. S last September. We should not judge a person because of where they come from. It's not their fault that their country did a very bad thing. If they thought that it was ok to kill innocent people then they would go back to their homeland. In conclusion, I believe that we should try to stop hate crimes as soon as possible. A single person can not do much, but he can stop a person from committing a hate crime if he see them doing it.

I think the government should pass more laws enforcing very harsh circumstances for committing hate crimes. These crimes have to stop and they have to stop soon for the sake of our society.