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Hate Crime

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Topic: Responses to Hate Crimes Investigate the1998 murder of James Byrd in Jasper, Texas, the 1993 killing of Brandon Teena in Nebraska, the murder of Gwen Araujo or ANY hate crime. Note: You can decide YOURSELF what is a hate crime. It doesn't necessarily have to involve a conviction. You can make your case with research. Feel free to use a current media case! Don't be concerned about taking a controversial view--left, right or in-between. What does this crime have in common with the murders of Matthew Shepard and Harvey Milk? How did each community respond? What were legal repercussions, if any? Who was the victim? Who were the perpetrators? What effects did the crime have on society? You need a thesis statement. Your thesis statement needs to be underlined. Don't use Wikipedi

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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 only 1,200 hate crimes related to homosexuality have been officially been reported. Based on this statistics, it is a clear indication that hate crimes related to homosexuality goes unreported yet is a significant problem that is wide spread Mathew Sheppard’s murder and Harvey Milks assassination.
One of the most horrific events is about Matthew Sheppard that took place in October 1998 in Laramie (Bindel). Mathew Sheppard is one among thousands of victims who suffered from hate crimes against homosexuals in America. The story became one of the scandalous anti-gay hate crimes in the American history. In October 1998, Mathew Sheppard who was a student at the University of Wyoming was murdered by McKinney and Russell Arthur Henderson after Sheppard went public admitting he was gay. Mathew died after being tied to a fence, beaten by a pistol and left to die in a freezing weather. Mathew was discovered several hours later unconscious and later died after six days. The perpetrators actions sparked different reaction indicating the extent of how people felt about homosexuality and to what extent they could to show their sentiments. For example, Reverend Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas claimed that the divine retribution killed Mathew Sheppard because homosexuality is a sin. The Reverend and some of his followers further protested at Mathew’s funeral proclaiming how God hates fags (Bindel).
A similar incident occurred in Nov...
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