Hate Crimes: Definition, offender ProfileHate Crimes: Definition, Offender ProfileWhat is a hate crime? Who commits it? Hate crimes are bias-driven crimes whereby the offender targets a person or group because of ethnicity, race, social class, gender, age, religion, nationality or political affiliation. In the recent days in South Africa for example far-right leader and white supremacist Eugene Terreblanche, who has led bias-driven actions against blacks was himself killed to avenge the supposed crimes he has committed against Black South Afrikaans (
The deep divisions rooted in racial conflict is still felt in the former colony and such conflict, of perceived or proven wrongs and abuses by Whites against Blacks speak of what many see as white privilege in a nation formerly seen as a Slave Trade post. The Apartheid – the rule of the Whites over the Blacks is seen to be now long gone after the fight of Nelson Mandela but, hate crimes due to race, gender and social class lives on. In the US, hate crimes are also classified as intense motivators to offenders who commit certain crimes which includes assault, property damage, bullying, harassment, verbal abuse, plus other offensive acts.
There are varied applicable laws and enacted policies and Acts that prosecute hate crimes. They include the 1964 federal Civil Rights Law, the Violent Crime Control & Law Enforcement Act of 1964, The Matthew Shepard Act of 2009 & varied State Laws (45 States in all have a number of statues except Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina & Wyoming. The 2009 Matthew Sheppard Act signed by Pres. Obama further fortified existent policies and laws against hate crime; Since 1964, hate crimes are seen as Federal Offense. Still, in 2007, a total of 7,722 incidents and 9,080 offenses were recorded by law enforcement agencies including assault, property damage, murder and rape. There are some cases
the law enforcement agencies that are affected by the hate crime can be fined the full cost of services to victims of discrimination. One example of this is the “Nuremberg Protocol,” by which law enforcement agencies were compelled to “conduct[.] the most thorough investigation as possible of any act of aggression resulting from the violation of the Criminal Code, or other law in which the criminal act will have been committed. . . .” In addition to the “Nuremberg Protocol,” also known as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), law enforcement agencies were compelled to provide victims, witnesses, or witnesses other than a person of their choice with relevant documents and information and by any necessary special requests. The FBI released an extensive report stating that while the “Nuremberg Protocol” has been implemented, “the United States has not complied with its obligations to conduct the most complete and accurate investigation thus far to date.”[7] However, the “Nuremberg Protocol” itself continues: In the words of the New Mexico Attorney-General, it has become the law that the USFPS does not conduct that type of investigation—and that has resulted in a decrease in the number of cases, resulting in a reduction in the number of hate crimes.”[8]
Hate Crimes Against Race
In September 2004, President Obama issued Executive Order 13764 on “Intimate Partner Violence.”[9] The executive order was an attempt at making hate crimes more specific to race and to criminalizing sexual and domestic intimacy in addition to the other categories of violence. The Executive Order also expanded the federal law on hate crime, specifically, the Hate Crimes Prevention Act for the first time in US history. Hate crimes against blacks had also been an area of concern before the 2008 Presidential race.
At the time, Attorney General Eric Holder stated on June 4, 2010, that “we cannot engage in discrimination against black men or men of color.” The FBI estimated that the law is an outdated policy and that “there is certainly not an indication of an end in sight.” Holder made this statement to reporters after the FBI released the statistics: “There is definitely no indication [of an End in Sight] that that could happen. It’s not our intent to have a political agenda. We are asking for a solution to that problem, not some form of social engineering on [racial] lines.”
In May 2008 Holder also announced that “the Department of Justice would begin an investigation of hate crime in public venues such as the media, libraries and government agencies.”[10] However, this is still far too early to conclude that the FBI is investigating all types of “hate crimes” against black males.
The Hate Crimes Prevention Act is one of Barack Obama’s top priorities. In May 2006, Obama ordered the Department