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Arguments Against Hate Crime Laws

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines a hate crime as, "a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias. For the purposes of collecting statistics, the FBI has defined a hate crime as a "criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity." Hate itself is not a crime-and the FBI is mindful of protecting freedom of speech and other civil liberties" (FBI). When reading this definition, it is clear to understand why so many are against hate crimes. Hate crimes are a direct stab, whether that be literally or metaphorical, at a group of human beings. Any sane and empathetic person would air on the side of being against hate crimes. Hate crime laws are designed to deter bias-motivated crimes, and the federal hate crime statute allows for the government to help victims of these crimes. The United States is well-known for its freedom of speech and free beliefs. While hate speech is accepted, the criminal and law-breaking actions are what break the two apart. In 1968 when Congress and President …show more content…

"The hate crime law movement re-criminalizes conduct that is already criminal. In effect, it creates a hierarchy of victims-one based upon the group identities of perpetrators and victims, as long as prosecutors can prove a bias motive. Thus, from the beginning, hate crime laws have simply given us something else to argue about: whose victimization should be punished more severely" (TIME). While this point is extremely necessary and valid, laws are in place for a reason. Laws create an understanding of what is acceptable in one's place of living. Through hate crime laws, a blanket understanding of what is allowed, and illegal is known by

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334 Words | 2 Pages

A hate crime is a violent act against people, property, or organizations because of the group to which they belong or identify with. Hate crimes are committed against many different groups of people. Many hate crimes are based on racial or religious bias. Racial bias is the largest cause of hate crimes. Hate crimes are a specific type of crime committed against individuals or groups because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, age, or

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124 Words | 1 Pages

The Scoutmaster and the Gunslinger is a great story. In my opinion, Brad and Miles thought they were better than each other. In the story, Brad claims that Miles was out of control and he always ended up getting them in sticky situations and Miles claims that Brad was slow when it came to taking action and he hardly gets any help on his proposals. Both men had high values but they didn’t want to let each other shine independently, which was ridiculous since one was an executive officer and the other one was an operating officer. They did right when they went and got help to solve their problems, not only did it help them, it also help the whole organization as well.

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565 Words | 3 Pages

In this article, Jacobs successfully makes his argument by remaining objective, appealing more toward the ethos and logos of the reader, and limiting emotional language. Jacobs aims his article toward lawmakers and voters. Motives are subjective and based on many factors; therefore, Jacobs argues that basing hate crime off of motive does not only create hardships but also flaws. He continues his argument by looking at rights given to the people from the First Amendment. According to the First Amendment, people possess many freedoms including the freedom of speech; however, Jacobs argues how hate crimes

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323 Words | 2 Pages

According to the congress, a hate crime is a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.” (2015, January 07). Hate Crime—Overview. FBI. Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov

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380 Words | 2 Pages

Over recent years our government has been developing new hate crime laws. The meaning behind them is great. It would be a good country if everyone wasn’t racist, we didn’t have hate groups like the KKK or terrorist groups, and racism became a distant memory, but hate crime laws are just a savage hypocrisy. All

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1120 Words | 5 Pages

Hate crimes create a message to the public that these groups of people do matter, and they are protected by

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1098 Words | 5 Pages

Today, hate crimes are defined in the United States by the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 as “crimes that are committed due to the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin of any person” (US DoJ, 2023). While this most recent hate crime legislation was passed within the past two decades, hate crimes have been committed throughout the course of human history and there has been anti-hate crime legislation in the United States since the 1960’s. Early hate crime legislation only applied to victims who were participating in a limited number of federally protected activities, including attending school or voting. It was not until 2009 that legislation expanded hate crimes to include any victim of crimes committed due to the victim’s real or perceived membership of certain groups. There are numerous relevant factors

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1481 Words | 6 Pages

Hate crime What distinguishes a hate crime from other crimes is an underlying motivation based on the victim’s group membership. There has been much debate over the constitutionality of hate crime laws and which groups (if any) should be protected by such legislation. Those against hate crime laws argue that it is a violation of First Amendment protections of free, association, and freedom of thought. The Supreme Court confirmed that freedom of thought is implied by the First Amendment in R.A.V. v. St. Paul which those against hate crime laws argue makes such laws unconstitutional.

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177 Words | 1 Pages

Hate crimes exist because individuals or groups commit offenses that may or may not be with criminal intent. Hate crime laws impose tougher penalties on criminals who target people because of their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability. If a criminal assaults a person because that person is Muslim, for an example, the crime would likely be a hate crime. I am opposed to hate crimes against any group of people.

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295 Words | 2 Pages

Hate crimes are crimes that are typically provoked by certain individuals who are biased against others race, religion or sexual orientation. These incidents are usually committed with a great deal of violence such as physical assault, property damage and bullying. Although many strategies of how to prevent such crimes from occurring have developed, not much has been completed to test these theories. Hate crimes are frequently caused by a mixture of emotions that are extremely complicated to identify. However, according to the National Crime Prevention Council many of those who partake in such crimes are those who lack self-respect for themselves and find a need to put other individuals down in order to balance their feelings.

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626 Words | 3 Pages

Hate crime can be defined as ‘any hate incident, which constitutes a criminal offence, perceived by the victim or any other person, as being motivated by hate or prejudice’ . Effectively hate crime differentiates from a normal criminal offence as hate crime is not really about hate, but about bias or prejudice . It is criminal behaviour motivated by prejudice that constitutes the key casual factor in the classification of a hate crime . The deviance of these crimes has been strongly reflected in statute as amounting to an aggravating factor when the judge is imposing a sentence on the offender . However, as there is no minimum tariff for hate crime the length of sentencing is at the judge’s discretion which gives rise to both advantages and disadvantages in the shape of flexibility to respond to different combination of facts .

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344 Words | 2 Pages

Have you ever thought about getting beat up or even killed because of something you can’t help like your sexuality, race, religion, or gender? Many people in the world are getting injured or killed everyday. About one person every two hours of everyday gets attacked or killed because of who or what they are. How do hate crimes play a big role in society today? Well hate crimes affect the way people live in a very big way.

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315 Words | 2 Pages

No matter what people believe in, who they love, what color their skin is or their gender people should not be scared or unhappy about who they are. Hate crimes are intended to harm or offend people who are different. For example, “Hate crimes have a broader impact on victims and communities because they target core aspects of identity” (“Hate Crimes”). This shows, that neighborhoods, families, communities do not feel safe or

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1461 Words | 6 Pages

From a young age citizen of the United States learn to hate, from microaggressions to full on riots like the one in Charlottesville, last year. The prejudices that Americans hold strongly contradict out values and defy the our country’s very constitution. I have looked into crimes provoked by race, religion, sexual orientation or ability. The amount of hate crimes in The United States is astounding, especially considering that we are a country that gives equal protection to all citizens no matter their race, sex, religion, or ability. The worst part about the hate crimes in the United States is that, in theory, really anyone can be affected.

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449 Words | 2 Pages

Hate crimes put cities and towns at-risk of serious social and economic consequences. The immediate costs of racial conflicts and civil disturbances are police, fire, and medical personnel overtime, injury or death, business and residential property loss, and damage to vehicles and equipment”. (Strom, 2001) The underlying motive of people in hate groups maybe self-loathing. They have a displacement of anger at parents or others in their past.

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