Hate crimes in the United States

Hate crimes in the United States 

                                                  Khaled Elsharkawy

Hate crimes in the United States, also known as bias- motivated crimes, are the crimes committed by one or more persons motivated by hostility or hatred against a person or a specific category on the basis of race, religion, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or age (Jacobs & Potter, 2001). 

 The term “hate crimes” was not used until after World War II and the beginning of the face of racist movements, however, the origin of hate crimes dates back to ancient civilizations, for example: the old Roman Empire, which was well known persecution of various religious groups (Kelly & Maghan, 1998).

According to several historical documents the persecution of Christians was a great beginning of the reign of Emperor Nero in 64 AD when a fire destroyed a huge big part of Rome, and called that anyone who follows the religion will be punished and led to years of hatred against anyone who follows the Christian beliefs, as well as many other religious groups (Kelly &Maghan, 1998, Wright, 2005). 

The persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire was intermittently for nearly three centuries until the year 313 AD when the Milan edict was issued by Emperor Constantine the Great who ruled the Roman Empire since 306 AD until 337 AD, and was dominated by the influence of the Christian religion (Bomgardner, 2000, Wylen, 1995).

The biggest hate crime in the world was in Nazi Germany, when Hitler called to the complete destruction of the Jews, builds up death camps, and established the Holocaust which resulted in the mass murder of millions of people as well as the genocide of ethnic and racial groups in Bosnia and Rwanda (Little, 1998). 

  The Ku Klux Klan was a secret racist organization founded in The United States in 1856. It has been the most virulent white racist organization in the United States that threatened those of African American, Jewish, and Catholic descent. In 1921, the group reached approximately 100,000 members and flooded the money coffers, and peaked in 1924 when it offered 40,000 of its members in the streets of Washington, DC, during the National Congress of the Democratic Party (Altschiller, 1999; Little, 1998).

The hate crimes got on a smaller scale in the United States in the late 20^th and early 21^st, but it's still going on across the country, and most of the hate crimes in the United States are racially motivated. Those crimes included offenses like intimidation, vandalism, rape, murder, and assault (Encyclopedia of Violence, 2008).

Statistics provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation has shown that hate crimes are on the rise in the United States. In 2006, the number of hate increased 8% from the year before, and 6,222 incidents involving hate crime have also been reported in 2011, and statistics show that half of all hate crimes in the United States are committed by young people aged between 15 and 24 years old. Furthermore, according to some research, at least eight African-Americans, three Caucasian Americans, three homosexual Americans, three Jewish-Americans, and one Latino-American have been exposed to hate crimes at least once a day in the United States. These grim facts show that despite the social progress in the community, hate crimes are far from history (FBI, 2012).

The Civil Rights Act of 1986 claims that the Federal Government must evaluate the criminal proceedings against a person hurt willingly or participatory in the abuse of another person or persons or attempts to do so, use force against another person, or persons on the basis of race, color, religion, or nationality upon entry into one of six types of federal protection which are: schools, Social Welfare, places and public buildings, workplaces, jury court, and voting. Persons who violate the law are punished with a fine or imprisonment for up to one year, or both, if the results were bodily injury or if such acts involve intimidation, but if there was use of firearms or explosives, the punishment would be imprisonment of ten years, while the crimes involving the kidnapping and sexual abuse and/or murder are punishable by life imprisonment or death (Wright, 2005).

The “Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994” requires the committee to make judgments in the United States through tightened sanctions on hatred motivated by race, color, religion, national origin, ethnic origin, or sex crimes (Wright, 2005).

The “Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act” was a law passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Barack Obama in reaction to the killing of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. This law included a modification of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 and the expansion of hate crimes to include sex drive, sexual identity, sexual orientation, disability, or transgender (Department of Justice, 2013).

Law and Justice: Prisoner Reentry Porograms

Law and Justice: Prisoner Reentry Porograms: Khaled Elsharkawy             Prisoner reentry means continuity of institutional programs to control and supervise the pris...

Prisoner’s right in constitution

 Khaled Elsharkawy

Harrall, (1988) starting in the mid-1960s a number of oppressed minorities’ litigation before the Federal courts for the rights granted to them under the U.S. Constitution. One of these groups was prisoners in all prisons scattered across the states and counties institutions. Through a series of cases based on Section 1983 of the United States Code and the Fourteenth Amendment, these prisoners have successfully brought cases involving First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendment issues. Most of the gains of their First Amendment rights (speech - religion) and Fourth Amendment (search, privacy) are severely restricted (Waguespack, 2001).

Continued to claim freedom of religion in prisons during the 19th century and until the 20th century where prisons began in the development of grant prisoners the freedom to practice their religion, including the chapels inside the prisons in their design. The volunteers were allowed clergy to preach prisoners with limited exceptions (Thomas, & Zaitzow, 2006). In Fulwood v. Clemmer (1962) the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia ruled that Black Muslims have the same right to practice their religion and hold worship services as do inmates of other faiths. In WoIJf v. McDonnel (1974) established the protections extend to the practice of religion in prison. As with other prisoners’ rights, security and punitive interests may trump the Constitution. Many studies have found there is evidence that participating in prison religious programs significantly reduces recidivism (Thomas, & Zaitzow, 2006).

The Eighth Amendment prohibits excessive bail, excessive fines, and cruel and unusual punishments (Reed, 2004). In Solem v. Helm, (1983) was within the scope of the protection afforded by Eighth Amendment of cruel and unusual punishments. In this case the court has approved the principle that punishment must be proportionate to the crime for which the defendant has been convicted (Reed, 2004). Ewing v. California, (2003) ruled that the three strikes laws serve the goal of deterring legislator and incapacitating repeat offenders and do not violate the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits the imposition of the sentence that is disproportionate to significantly with the severity of the crime (Peck, 2004).

in Bragdon v. Abbott (1998) the U.S. Supreme Court's ruled that individuals with HIV infection are entitled to the protections of antidiscrimination law, and that health care providers must respond to a patient's infection based on reason and science, not fear and prejudice for individuals with HIV, and for those with other disabilities (Parmet, 2001). In Sullivan v. County of Pierce, (2000) the 9 Circuit Court ruled that medical providers had shown deliberate indifference when they refused to provide a protease inhibitor and ignoring prisoner's HIV medications is unconstitutional (Carles, 2012). In recent years decreased incidence of HIV among prisoners from 2.2% in 1998 to 1.9% at the end of 2002. The number of State and Federal prison inmates known to have AIDs decreased from 5754 in 2001 to 5643 in 2002 (Maruschak, 2004).