Hate Crime

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Hate Crime
Introduction
Hate crime can be described from different perspectives, depending on the purpose of the offense. Many scholars define hate crimes as a crime against an individual based on his perceived roles in a society (Haider & Donald, 126). Some of the social groups can be defined by sexual orientation, religion, and values. These types of hate crimes fuel people into violent activities leading to hate crime (Lewis, 57). This essay will discuss hate crimes in relation to homosexuality, looking at the current trends of such hate crimes and further citing two incidences of Mathew Sheppard and Harvey Milk involving hate crimes.Overview
Hate crimes are specific forms of crime whereby individuals can be verbally, physically attacked due to several reasons including gender, sexual orientation, religion, politics, race, ethnicity disability or age (The Washington Post). In addition, hate crimes are expressed through damaging property, bullying, threatening messages among other forms of expressions. The most common types of hate crime include racial hate crime, and sexual orientation hate crimes. However, research shows that between 2010 and 2011 racial crimes reported have dropped from 42,554 to 31,486 due to civic education by governments (The American Psychological Association). As much as racial hate crime does not cause any physical harm, victims suffer from mental and emotional consequences. On the other hand, sexual orientation and gender hate crime especially targeting gays and lesbians has increased. As a result, people who considered themselves as gays or lesbian have been victims of hate crimes. Hate crimes, most of the times, lead to death of the victims if the victim is not rescued at the right time and so it poses a serious social issue to the society (The American Psychological Association).History of Hate Crimes
Hate crimes have always existed despite the existence of several laws that have been passed to curb the issue. The crimes started as early as 1800 and also during civil wars (Eisenhower). They have been given considerable attention especially in the twenty-first century, but this is not a new phenomenon. Hate crime has been witnessed in the past, as Jewish people were persecuted during the Holocaust as it was considered as the greatest hate crime in the human history. Other examples include the genocides in Armenia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Sudan and even other actions carried out by the Ku Klux Klan against the African American in Untied States. Today, hate crimes have become prevalent in the society compared to the past. Several cases of crimes have been witnessed recently including religious hate crimes against Muslims, the gay community, and other minority groups. These crimes are fueled by prejudices, which are negative feelings thoughts, and opinion towards certain religion, ethnic, race and specific groups (Eisenhower).
In one of the studies conducted recently by religious tolerance organization, 41% of gays, lesbians and bisexual reported having been a victim of hate crime by the time they reached sixteen years (Bindel). A total of six million of gays, lesbians and bisexuals have been victimized during their lifetime. The study further explains that onl...