Thursday 29 December 2011

Solutions

  • Educate yourself about hate crime statistics. You'll stop these heinous crimes more effectively when you know what you're dealing with.
  • Act quickly and decisively when you witness a situation that might turn into a hate crime. Racial slurs between white and black students on campus can quickly turn into something worse. A party with both gays and straights can get dangerous when some people have a few too many drinks.
  • Lobby both state and federal government. Encourage leaders to address hate crimes in their speeches to the community. Use the Petitions Online website to create a petition championing stronger hate crime laws.
  • Organize demonstrations against hate crimes. Stage a protest rally and have experts speak out against it. March in your state capital or Washington, DC, to educate people about this problem.
  • Contact your local media when you hear of a hate crime that didn't get the coverage it deserved. Regional newspapers, alternative publications, radio stations and cable TV networks appreciate stories like these because they carry broad relevance for the community.
  • Set up a webpage to speak out against intolerance. A blog is another way to rally support for your cause. Report on local incidents people may not hear about, as well as stories reported in the national news.
  • Teach your children tolerance so they stop hate crimes before they start. The Southern Poverty Law Center set up the Tolerance website with resources for teachers, parents, kids and teens.
 
 

Players and Stakeholders

 

 

Who Is The Target Of Hate Crimes?

Anyone who is victimized on the basis of their membership with an identifiable group is the victim of a hate crime. If you identify yourself as a Jewish person and you are assaulted because of this you are then considered to be a victim of a hate crime. Similarly, if a person were to vandalize your property with spray-paint swastikas or other anti-ethnic symbols you would also be considered to be a victim of a hate crime. The most likely targets of hate crimes are racial minorities and people who identify as having a sexual orientation that is not strictly heterosexual. However, people who identify with other groups can also be victimized by a hate motivated offender.
In 2008, Statistics Canada released the results of the Hate Crime Supplemental Survey which reported on the prevalence of hate crimes in Canada. It is important to note here that the statistics reported were obtained from police services and therefore only include the crimes which were reported to police. These statistics likely underestimate the actual number of hate crimes perpetrated in Canada, as many people choose to not report them. Black was the most commonly targeted racial group, comprising 4 in 10 hate crimes. The next most commonly targeted racial group was East Indian and Pakistani, who were the target of 12% of the racially motivated hate crimes. Additionally, Statistics Canada reported that the Jewish faith was the most commonly targeted religion, with two-thirds of all religiously motivated hate crimes being committed against people of the Jewish faith. The third most prevalent (but the most violent) hate crimes reported were those motivated by prejudice towards people with a certain sexual orientation. 75% of these crimes were violent, compared to 38% of racially motivated and 25% of religiously motivated hate crimes.

Who Commits Hate Crimes?

Just as anyone can be a victim of a hate crime, anyone can also be a perpetrator. The offenders can be either adults or youths and the crimes premeditated or of opportunity. An extreme example was the “London nail bomber,” David Copeland, who filled homemade bombs with nails and placed them in communities highly populated by blacks, Bangladeshis, and homosexuals in London, England. Copeland, who killed 3 people and injured 126 with his bombs, was reported to have been a member of the far-right British National Party, a leader in the National Socialist Movement, and admitted to holding neo-Nazi views. He reported that he was hoping to start a ‘racial war’ by setting off the bombs, which were detonated over a period of 3 weekends. While this crime was very violent in nature, a large number of hate crimes do not involve this level of violence.
Statistics Canada, using data from the General Social Survey of 2004 and the Hate Crime Supplemental Survey of 2006, reports that the large majority of perpetrators of hate crimes are males between the ages of 12-24 years old. The perpetrators of these crimes tended to be strangers to their victims; 77% of victims of police reported hate crimes did not know their attacker, compared to 33% of all other victims of violent crimes.

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Causes

A major social cause would be the attitudes of the person who would do such a thing. Many times, it can be the way a person was socialized from childhood. If a child hears a parent or other trusted adult constantly talk negatively about a group of people, that child sometimes adopts that way of thinking. Influence from peers can also be at the root of the problem. Being accepted by your "group" often means adopting attitudes you wouldn't normally have, so you can fit in.

Sometimes hate crimes are rigged when a person has no understanding of a race or religion, or something else, grows to be scared of that something. Later on, scare turns into hatred. Sometimes they are rigged when a person is often bullied and cannot stand it anymore, and their hatred has gotten to the extreme rate. And they fell like the whole world's against them.

Thursday 1 December 2011

Backgrounder

  • Hate crimes are committed to intimidate, harm or terrify not only one person but an entire group of people.
  • Under section 318 of the criminal code it is a criminal act to advocate or promote genocide.
  • Under section 319 deals with publicly stirring up or inciting hatred against an identifiable group based on color, race, sex etc.  
  • Main targets of hate crimes include: blacks, gays, Jews and East Indians.
  • Hate crimes can be spread through groups such as the Ku Klux Klan which has been alive over 150 years spreading their hate both mentally and physically to those who are not white.

    Hate crimes are an act to spread hate towards ethnic groups such as religions,race,sexual orientation and even age.Hate crimes can be expressed in many ways such as racism,ageism and many more.They can be spread through groups,internet and even video games.Electronics can be used for a negative beneficial factor but also a positive factor to spread ones thoughts worldwide in just a matter of minutes.