Hate Crime
1
Hate Crimes in America
John James
Criminology 200 061
Hate Crime
2
I. Introduction
The word hate crime became part of the America in 1985 when it was used by United
States represenitives John Conyers and Mario Biaggi. Hate crime has deep historical
roots, throughout U.S. history, a significant proportion of all murders, assaults, and acts
of vandalism have been fueled by hatred. As Native Americans have been described as
the first hate crime victims, hate crimes have existed since the creation of the United
States. Since then, members of all immigrant groups have been subjected to
discrimination, harassment, and violence.
In general a hate crime is considered to be an illegal act against a person, institution, or
property that is motivated by the offender’s prejudice against the victim’s group status.
Although not all professionals agree about who should be protected by hate crime laws,
the majority of such laws describe the offender’s motivation based on prejudice against
the victim’s, race, color, nationality, religion, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or
disability status.
