Stotzer, R. L. (2008). Gender identity and hate crimes: Violence against transgender people in Los Angeles County. Sexuality Research & Social Policy, 5(1), 43-52.
In this study, the hate crime is an act of vehemence against transgender subjects who have changed from being male to female. The study identifies the racial composition of the culprits as 42.1% Latinos, (38.2%) Blacks, 10 13.2% Whites, 3.9% of unknown races, and the remaining fraction from other races (Stotzer, 2008). The genders of the offenders are 80.6% male and 19.4% female. Most female offenders rarely act alone because they tend to act with groups of male culprit when attacking their victims. 87.2% of acts of violence involve an offender who is a stranger to the victim. The few cases that involve perpetrators who are familiar to the victims are committed by neighbors and landlords. The average age of the wrongdoers is 26 years. The minimum age is 15 years, whereas the maximum age of the offenders is 55 years. This study shows that hate crimes against transgender people are carried out by people of different ages, racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Herek, C. M. (1989). Hate crime against lesbians and gay men: Issues for research and policy. American Psychologist, 4(6), 925-955.
This paper reports the origin of hate crimes against gay and lesbians in America. In the past, men suspected to be gay or those who sodomized other men were executed. Other forms of punishment for homosexuals included utilitarian violence such as crime incarceration, fines, castration and severance of the clitoris, involuntary psychiatric therapy, disgraceful dismissal from the army and social banishment. Therefore, these past happenings serve as a basis for the hate crimes committed against gays and lesbians. In this study, methods used to perpetrate hate crimes against gay men and lesbians include verbal abuse and threats, vandalism or arson, sexual assault, police and school victimization (Herek, 1989).
Stotzer, R. L. (2009). Violence against transgender people: A review of United States data. Aggression and Violent Behavior 14 (2009), 170–179.
Perpetrators of hate crimes against transgender individuals use sexual violence and abuse, physical violence, as well as verbal harassment and abuse. Most perpetrators of sexual violence are persons who are familiar to the victim including spouses and family members. Physical violence and verbal violence, conversely, are perpetrated mainly by strangers followed by police, parents, brethren, neighbors and other relatives (Stotzer, 2009). Some victims of hate crimes report having received life threats while others have escaped death several times. Several cases of transgender murders have also been reported especially among poor Black people. The victims report that they do not trust the police and, therefore, are uncomfortable reporting their plight to the police. Their discomfort is attributed to the fact that some of the police officers turn out to be hate crime perpetrators instead of being law enforcers (Stotzer, 2009).
Turner, L., Whittle, S., & Combs, R. (2009). Transphobic hate crime in the European Union. LGA-Europe and Press for Change. Web.
Most transphobic hate crimes in the European Union are committed against transgender women. Perpetrators possess an illogical fear and do not adapt to cultural gender patterns. The accosters have intolerance or aggression toward transsexual or transgender people or their perceived trans individuality. In most cases, the victims feel they have nowhere to turn to because it is assumed that trans women’s reactions to attacks are ‘male’ responses thereby posing as threats to their accosters (Turner, Whittle, & Combs, 2009).
Jacobs, J. B. & Henry, J. S. (1996). The social construction of a hate crime epidemic. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 86(2), 366-391.
Hate-inspired crimes are aggravated by race, faith, ethnicity, sexual characteristics, sexual predilection, and disability (Jacobs & Henry, 1996). Sexual predilection is the major trigger for hate crimes and entails the use of physical and verbal abuse by the accosters.
Perry, B. (2002). Defending the color line: Racially and ethnically motivated hate crime. American Behavioral Scientist, 46(1), 72-92.
This paper reports that most hate crimes occur as a result of racial and ethnic prejudice. The author asserts that the perpetration is an avenue that offenders use to defend and affirm their racial and ethnic individualities (Perry, 2002).
Sun, K. (2006). The legal definition of hate crime and the hate offender’s distorted cognitions. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 27, 597–604.
This paper asserts that hate crime offenders perpetrate such crimes by holding the victim responsible and using different group affiliations to validate and substantiate their hate crimes (Sun, 2006).
Iganski, P., Smith, D. Dixon, L., Kielinger, V., Mason, G., McDevitt, J., Perry, B. & Stelman, A. (2011). Rehabilitation of hate crime offenders: Research Report. Web.
Males accounted for 79% of hate crimes offenders, indicates that the salience of interpretations of gender uniqueness and virility for offending need to be studied and tackled by rehabilitation programs with respect to oppression of all beleaguered groups (Iganski et al., 2011).
Roxell, L. (2011). Hate, threats, and violence: A register study of persons suspected of hate crime. Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 12(2), 198-215.
The study reports that xenophobic hate crimes are more than homophobic and Islamophobic hate crimes (Roxell, 2011). Most of the offenders are known to the victims. Additionally, the majority of hate crimes are committed by males. A further look at the criminal history of the offenders reveals that most of them have prior records of brutal offenses or illegal extortions and molestation.
Gruenewald, J. (2011). A Comparative examination of homicides perpetrated by far-right extremists. Homicide Studies, 15(2), 177–203.
The study reports that hate crimes may escalate to homicides due to the actions of far-right extremists. Most of these aggressive extremists tend to be white men in their late thirties who intimidate victims arbitrarily. They delight in the excitement of making other people suffer. Some have atrocious traits and perceive inflicting pain and suffering as rewards (Gruenewald, 2011).
Common Denominator Descriptions of People Involved In Hate Crime
From the ten articles reviewed, certain features stand out regarding the traits of people involved in hate crimes. The victims in most cases are members of a minority group in terms of race, gender or sexual orientation. Most cases of hate crimes are committed against transgender subjects, lesbians and homosexuals. Therefore, it is evident that all hate crimes perpetrators cannot adapt to cultural gender patterns. They are intolerant towards sexual and gender perceptions that differ from theirs.
Another common trait of the perpetrators is the mode of intimidation used. The offenders mostly use verbal, physical and sexual abuse to intimidate their victims. They can either be known or unknown to their victims. Male offenders are more than female offenders. In cases involving female offenders, the females often act in groups. The perpetrators of hate crimes go as far as threatening to end the lives of their victims. Some offenders even go ahead to kill their victims as witnessed in the rising number of transgender murders (Stotzer, 2009). One alarming feature is that some of the executors of hate crimes are police officers who are supposed to protect the victims from the criminals.
Hate Crime Fact Outline
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) highlights hate crimes as criminal activities enthused by prejudices based on ethnicity, sexual category, sexual individuality, religious affiliation, infirmity, and sexual orientation (The Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2015). The victims of hate crimes may be individuals or corporations. The facts reported by UCR are obtained from participating agencies in various states. In 2014, 48.3 percent of the injured parties were beleaguered due to the perpetrator’s bias against race while 18.7 % percent were attacked due to prejudices against sexual alignment. Biases against religion, ethnicity, gender identity, disability, and gender bias accounted for 17.1 %, 12.3 %, 1.6 %, 1.4 %, and 0.6 % of the offenses respectively. The crimes committed in 2014 were carried out by 5192 known hate crime offenders. Out of these, 52 % was White while 29 % was Black or African-American. Approximately 81 % of the offenders were above the age of 18 while 19 % were below the age of 18.
Mississippi has 75 participating agencies that cover a population of 1,349,655 people. Only one out of the 75 agency in Mississippi submits incidence reports to the UCR. The State of Mississippi reported the lowest rate of hate crimes in 2014 with only one incident that involved a simple assault. California had the highest incidence of hate crimes with an incidence of 948 cases out of the total 6,418 cases in 2014.
References
Gruenewald, J. (2011). A Comparative examination of homicides perpetrated by far-right extremists. Homicide Studies, 15(2), 177–203.
Herek, C. M. (1989). Hate crime against lesbians and gay men: Issues for research and policy. American Psychologist, 4(6), 925-955.
Iganski, P., Smith, D. Dixon, L., Kielinger, V., Mason, G., McDevitt, J., Perry, B. & Stelman, A. (2011). Rehabilitation of hate crime offenders: Research Report.
Jacobs, J. B. & Henry, J. S. (1996). The social construction of a hate crime epidemic. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 86(2), 366-391.
Perry, B. (2002). Defending the color line: Racially and ethnically motivated hate crime. American Behavioral Scientist, 46(1), 72-92.
Roxell, L. (2011). Hate, threats, and violence: A register study of persons suspected of hate crime. Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 12(2), 198-215.
Stotzer, R. L. (2008). Gender identity and hate crimes: Violence against transgender people in Los Angeles County. Sexuality Research & Social Policy, 5(1), 43-52.
Stotzer, R. L. (2009). Violence against transgender people: A review of United States data. Aggression and Violent Behavior 14 (2009), 170–179.
Sun, K. (2006). The legal definition of hate crime and the hate offender’s distorted cognitions. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 27, 597–604.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2015). 2014 hate crime statistics. Web.
Turner, L., Whittle, S., & Combs, R. (2009). Transphobic hate crime in the European Union. LGA-Europe and Press for Change. Web.