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A History of How Authorities Deal with Hate Crime
Introduction
Hate crimes are a source of concern in most parts of the world today, including the U.S. The interest in hate crimes however is not very clear, since the actual dates these have been declared as crimes is not very clear. The following study seeks to establish the actual meaning of the term hate crimes, as well as the history behind the prosecution of hate crimes especially in the U.S. Also, the study seeks to determine the basis of hate crimes and what drives individuals into committing these atrocities.
Definition of Hate Crime
The term “hate crime”, as well as its analog connotation “bias crime” first experienced widespread usage among the criminal justice practitioners as well as researchers during the 1980s (Douglas, 2015). Definitions of the term differ however there have been particular ones suitable for usage in discourse. The working definition of the term has been advanced by the FBI. Hate crime is a …show more content…
has however not been universal. The opponents of the anti-bias statutes postulate the argument that such laws usually unlawfully interfere with the various individual’s right to their freedom of expression (Douglas, 2015). Exemplar prosecutions have however marred the justification advanced by those opposed to hate crime statutes. For instance, the Wisconsin v, Mitchell case in the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously argued that hate crimes as violating individual rights. The court ruled that hate crimes do not violate the defendant’s First Amendment right to freedom of speech, since the law only punished the conduct that caused any special harm to the victims, as well as the community (Gillis, 2013). The court reasoned that the hate crime was aimed at realistically addressing the harm, but not designed to impart punishment on the offenders due to their