CRM/LAW C107 Study Guide - Final Guide: Hate Crime, Gender Identity, Hate Crime Statistics Act
8 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Hate Crimes
Study Guide: Midterm Exam
Hate crime definition
● If an offense is based upon/committed as a result of bias or prejudice.
● For something to be considered a hate crime:
1. Criminal offense has to have occurred
2. Evidence that perpetrator’s actions motivated by prejudice or animus against
group represented by the victim
● Problem with this definition?
Some acts carried out may be legal, depending upon time and location of act. Also, it is
difficult to prove somebody has prejudice, some sort of tangible evidence must be presented
Hate Crime Statistics Act (1990)
● The federal government collect data every 4 yrs starting in 1990, on crimes that show
evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, also
including crimes of murder, non-negligent manslaughter, rape, aggravated assault, simple
assault, intimidation, arson, and destruction/damage/vandalism of property
● All this data/information would then be put in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report. 1994
provision added crimes motivated by bias against disability
Federal hate crime law & state variations
● Federal Def: A criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is
motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability,
sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin
○ Does not address bias against gender, age, or political affiliation
● Some states are more specific
○ Ex: New York includes ancestry and religious practice, Alabama includes
disabilities
○ common categories w/in states: race, religion, ethnicity
○ “what differs across the nation is the breadth of protected classes” (7)
Wisconsin v. Mitchell
● Mitchell, a young black man, watched a movie in which a white man beats a black man
while he was praying. Mitchell then convinced his friends to go out and beat up a white
guy who ended up in a coma in the hospital. He was charged with aggravated assault
● Defense: his first amendment rights were violated
● Ruling: It is not a violation of free speech
● “Violence or other types of potentially expressive activities that product special harms
distinct from their communicative impact are entitled to no constitutional protection”
U.S. v. Johnson
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)
● where all hate crime data collected by individual law enforcement agencies goes into.
● In 1996, hate crime data collection became a permanent part of UCR. The UCR is narrow
in its reporting, leaves lots of ground to be covered (Gender and political orientation
discrimination not accounted for)
● shows general trends & patterns w/in hate crimes (geographical coverage & hate crime
motivations)
How common are hate crimes
● FBI: over 6000 incidents in 2016
● NCVS: Over 100,000/year (44% reported to the police)
● 88% of law enforcement agencies reported no hate crimes in their jurisdiction data
concerns
● Race is the most frequent motivation, accounts for 2/3 of hate crimes
○ African-Americans are the most likely victims
■ Make up less than 15% of population, but represent 1/3 of victims of
ethnoviolence
○ Jews are the second most likely victims
■ Represent over 10% of all victims
○ Throughout 1990s, increased violence towards homosexuals
Which groups are most targeted for hate crimes?
● Who Is Most Affected – Bureau of Justice Statistics 2015
○ Race/ethnicity/ancestry: 60%
○ Religion: 20%
○ Sexual Orientation: 17%
○ Gender identity: 2%
○ Disability: 1%
○ Gender bias: 0.5%
What makes hate crimes distinct from other types of crime?
● A criminal offense has to take place
● Evidence that the perpetrator’s actions are motivated by prejudice or animus against the
group represented by the victim
○ Ex: racial slurs were used during crime, offensive tattoos, affiliation with known
hate groups
Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiment
● Child would be put in a room with one adult who would violently hit the bobo doll
● When left alone, the child would imitate the adult’s behavior and hit the bobo doll too
○ Highest level of imitation occurred when child and adult were of the same sex
● Study was later done again by having children watch adults violently hit bobo doll on a
television rather than in real life
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○ Led to similar violent actions by the children
Milgrim’s Obedience Experiment
● Measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed
them to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience
● Participants were led to believe that they were assisting an unrelated experiment, in
which they had to administer electric shocks to a "learner." These fake electric shocks
gradually increased to levels that would have been fatal had they been real.
● Over 60% of people were obedient and shocked the person on the entire scale
Be familiar with the following theories, examples of hate crimes they apply to, and critiques
or limitations of the theories:
Social Learning Theories
- Bandura's Bobo Doll Experiment
- Authoritarian Personality: personality that defers to conventionalism due to rigid arrogant
upbringing
- Leading to an 'us. vs. them' mentality
- You have so much respect for authority (i.e. your parents) so you take out
your anger on people who are below you
- Have lots of hostility to those below you--in which they should obey you
Social learning Theories: learning through association
3 ways Individuals Learn through Association: [Povlock and his study with dogs]
1. Classical Conditioning: associating a stimulus with an action
2. Operant Conditioning (rewards and punishment): learning and behaving by getting a
punishment or reward, if you clean your room you get a treat if you hit your sister you go
to your room, etc.
3. Behavior School (expectations): I saw that if I do this I get in trouble, or if I do this I get
reward for the behavior I did
Social Learning Theory in Hate Crimes
● Adorno, et al. 1950
o Authoritarian Personality- personality that defers to conventionalism due to rigid
arrogant upbringing
▪ Leading to an 'us vs them' mentality
→ The idea that the way you were raised shaped the way you will behave.
→ With an authoritarian personality then you tend to respect and follow rules and obey
authority and you accept law and order but you do not respect those who are below you
and they are the ones who need to respect you because they are below you and they must
have that respect about you because you are their authority
→ Therefore, people who were tough in an authoritarian way then they tend to be more
likely to be involved in Hate Crimes because they go against a minority group
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
If an offense is based upon/committed as a result of bias or prejudice. For something to be considered a hate crime: criminal offense has to have occurred, evidence that perpetrator"s actions motivated by prejudice or animus against group represented by the victim. Some acts carried out may be legal, depending upon time and location of act. Also, it is difficult to prove somebody has prejudice, some sort of tangible evidence must be presented. All this data/information would then be put in the fbi"s uniform crime report. 1994 provision added crimes motivated by bias against disability. Federal def: a criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender"s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin. Does not address bias against gender, age, or political affiliation. Ex: new york includes ancestry and religious practice, alabama includes disabilities. Common categories w/in states: race, religion, ethnicity.
