Causes Of Hate Crime

The thought of being beaten up or even killed, because of something you can’t help or change like your race, sexuality, or gender is completely foul. But sadly, its something that has been happening a lot these days and its known as hate crime. A hate crime According to fbi.gov is defined 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.” In 2014, over 15,494 law enforcement agencies participated in a program known as the Hate Crime Statistics. Out of the 15,494 agencies that participated “1,666 reported 5,479 hate crime incidents involving 6,418 offenses.” (fbi.gov). People who chose to kill

Hate crime sends messages to certain groups that they are not not welcomed and unsafe in the community that they are living in. Not only will making the victim feel unwanted it may also take a toll on the victim. A person who has experienced hate may feel, according to novabuck,” betrayal, Deep personal hurt, feelings of powerlessness, vulnerability, anger and sadness, fear for personal and family’s safety, changes in lifestyle that include things such as reactions to strangers and where they walk.” Victims of hate crime may also experience the same effects, such as someone who raped or sexually assaulted. Not only that, but they may also undergo physiological distress, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Novabucks, also goes on to say “victims of a hate crime may experience a greater sense of anger as compared to other victims of crime.” The effects hate crime crime can have on a individual can be quite drastic, causing the victim to feel an array of different emotions and emotional distress. According to socialworkers, “About one-third of the participants (33.9 percent) reported behavioral changes as both coping responses to the most recent attack and as attempts to avoid potential future victimization.” Some of these changes included moving out the country, buying a weapon, increased readiness to use a gun, buying initial or additional home security devices, and increasing safety precautions for children in the family. Socialworkers, also included several percentages of what victims of hate crime felt when it occurred, the highest emotion felt, was anger towards the perpetrator at 69 percent, fear of injury was the second highest with nearly 51 percent “of the participants indicating fear that they or their families would be physically injured” (socialworkers), and 39