Hate Crimes

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Hate Crimes
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Definition

• A hate crime, also known as a bias crime, is a
  criminal offense committed against a person,
  property, or society which is motivated, in whole
  or in part, by the offender's bias against a
  race, religion, disability, sexual orientation,
  or ethnicity/national origin.
• Violence against person because of group
  membership. (Think of Youngs description of the
  face of oppression that is called violence.)

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Prevalence of Hate Crimes

• Race-Based Hate Crimes (FBI Stats)
• Violence Against Women
• Crimes based on sexual identity (AI report)

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Policies to Address Hate Crimes

• State Laws (Map)
• AI Recommendations

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AI Recs

• Repeal laws criminalizing homosexuality
• Condemn torture, do not make public statements
  that could be interpreted as condoning torture.
  Hold accountable those that do.
  
• Train police etc. to ensure that people held in
  custody are safe from sexual violence and other
  hate crimes
  
• segregate prison populations where necessary
• prohibit forced medical treatments
• end impunity to charges of violence

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AI Recs Cntd

• protect members of group from violence in
  community, exercise due diligence, including
  domestic violence and other seemingly private
  acts
• protect children from violence and bullying in
  schools based on group identity
  
• incitement to discrimination, hostility or
  violence against people from certain groups
  should be prohibited in accordance with
  international standards prohibiting advocacy of
  hatred and anti-discrimination standards
• protect refugees fleeing torture
• protec and support human rights activists
• strengthen international protection by ratifying
  agreements, providing info on model programs etc,
  advocating for marginalized groups in all
  relevant UN conferences
• combat discrimination anti-discriminatory
  provisions

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Discuss

• Are hate crimes an important public policy
  problem? Why or why not?
  
• Do hate crimes constitute the sort of systematic
  violence that Young (1990) argues is an important
  aspect or facet of oppression?
  
• What might we do to improve policy responses to
  hate crimes?