Hate Crime
To Do:
*Read the summary below
*Read Barak p.36, p.127 Hate Crimes Against the Homeless
Go to the Discussion Forum: Answer the Question on Hate Crime
Do Assignment: Hate Crime: Patterns and Case Study – 12 points
due 1/17
Note: if you have problems downloading the readings, please get in
touch immediately
Hate Crime
Key Concepts: Hate Crimes Statistics Act, definitions, patterns, explanations,
organized hate crime groups
Every year thousands of women and men are victimized because of their race,
religion, ethnicity/ national origin, disability or sexual orientation. The following
slides from Riedel M and Welsh W (2008) Criminal Violence, Patterns, Causes and
Prevention, Oxford help to explain the importance of the Hate Crimes Statistics Act
and what is meant by hate crime.
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We need to consider how clear the definition of hate crime is: 1. How do we
establish ‘bias’, that the incident is the result of prejudice? This is very subjective.
It is often difficult to decide whether an act was a hate crime or simply a senseless
act of violence. 2. Why are some groups included and not others. Feminists have
argued that much violence against women should be considered hate crime, that the
motivation for such incidences is prejudice against women. Peter Sutcliffe, the
Yorkshire Ripper, is reported to have said of his crimes against women that, ‘God
encouraged me to kill the scum who cannot justify themselves to society’ – isn’t this
a clear expression of hate? 3. We also need to think about whether the vast majority
of violence is motivated by ‘hate’.
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Patterns
Below are the latest statistics on the number of cases of hate crimes that were
reported. We must remember that there will be a considerable hidden figure.
Victims of hate crime do not report for many reasons: fear of reprisals; that the
incident will not be treated seriously; fears over official intervention, especially if
the victim has worries with respect to their immigration status and so on.
FBI Releases 2011 Hate Crime
Statistics
According to statistics released today by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 6,222
criminal incidents involving 7,254 offenses were reported in 2011 as a result of bias
toward a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or
physical or mental disability. The statistics, published by the FBI’s Uniform Crime
Reporting (UCR) program in Hate Crime Statistics, 2011, provide data about the
offenses, victims, offenders, and locations of the bias-motivated incidents reported
by law enforcement agencies throughout the nation. Due to the unique nature of
hate crime, however, the UCR program does not estimate offenses for the
jurisdictions of agencies that do not submit reports.
Hate Crime Statistics, 2011 includes the following information:
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There were 6,216 single-bias incidents, of which 46.9 percent were
motivated by a racial bias, 20.8 percent were motivated by a sexual orientation
bias, 19.8 percent were motivated by a religious bias, and 11.6 percent were
motivated by an ethnicity/national origin bias. Bias against a disability
accounted for 0.9 percent of single-bias incidents.
Of the 4,623 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons in 2011,
intimidation accounted for 45.6 percent, simple assaults for 34.5 percent, and
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aggravated assaults for 19.4 percent. Four murders and seven forcible rapes
were reported as hate crimes.
There were 2,611 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property.
The majority of these (81.4 percent) were acts of
destruction/damage/vandalism. Robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle
theft, arson, and other offenses accounted for the remaining 18.6 percent of
crimes against property.
Fifty-nine percent of the 5,731 known offenders were white; 20.9 percent
were black. The race was unknown for 10.8 percent, and other races accounted
for the remaining known offenders.
Most hate crime incidents (32.0 percent) occurred in or near homes.
Eighteen percent took place on highways, roads, alleys, or streets; 9.3 percent
happened at schools or colleges; 5.9 percent in parking lots or garages; and 4.4
percent in churches, synagogues, or temples. The location was considered other
(undesignated) or unknown for 11.3 percent of hate crime incidents. The
remaining 19.1 percent of hate crime incidents took place at other specified or
multiple locations.
The Southern Poverty Law Center collects data on the types of hate crime
incidents. Access this link for more information (you may need to cut and
paste it into your browser).
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-incidents
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Explanations
The most common explanations for hate crime are summarized below by Riedel and
Welsh (2008). If you want to read the full chapter (in Criminal Violence: Patterns,
Causes and Prevention), on which these slides are based – the book is on reserve in
the library.
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We also need to consider the role of ‘othering’ and dehumanization. If you ‘other’
someone, you see them as not like you, they are different. A process of
dehumanization then occurs towards the person (s) (we can see this in the language
that might be used, e.g. the person(s) may be referred to by using a racist epithet or
even being constantly described as ‘they’ or ‘them’ rather than by name). When
someone does this they lose the ability to empathize with that person, once empathy
goes this sets the stage for acts of cruelty. I have discussed this in more detail in my
article with Jock Young on terrorism and war which I will post for you later in the
course. The process of dehumanization is also discussed in the reading for the
Genocide class.
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Organized Hate Crime Groups
This section gives more information on the work of the Southern Poverty Law
Center and organized hate crime groups.
The Southern Poverty Law Center
“The Southern Poverty Law Center monitors hate groups and other
extremists throughout the United States and exposes their activities to law
enforcement agencies, the media and the public. We publish our
investigative findings online, on our Hatewatch blog, and in the Intelligence
Report, our award-winning quarterly journal. We’ve crippled some of the
country’s most notorious hate groups by suing them for murders and other
violent acts committed by their members.
Currently, there are 1,007 known hate groups operating across the
country, including neo-Nazis, Klansmen, white nationalists, neoConfederates, racist skinheads, black separatists, border vigilantes and
others.
Since 2000, the number of hate groups has increased by 67 percent. This
surge has been fueled by anger and fear over the nation’s ailing economy,
an influx of non-white immigrants, and the diminishing white majority, as
symbolized by the election of the nation’s first African-American president.
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These factors also are feeding a powerful resurgence of the
antigovernment “Patriot” movement, which in the 1990s led to a string of
domestic terrorist plots, including the Oklahoma City bombing. The number
of Patriot groups, including armed militias, has grown 813 percent since of
the Obama was elected – from 149 in 2008 to 1,360 in 2012.
This growth in extremism has been aided by mainstream media figures
and politicians who have used their platforms to legitimize false
propaganda about immigrants and other minorities and spread the kind of
paranoid conspiracy theories on which militia groups thrive.
Fighting Hate in Court
In the early 1980s, SPLC co-founder and chief trial counsel Morris Dees
pioneered the strategy of using the courts to battle organized, violent hate
groups. Since then, we have won numerous large damage awards on
behalf of victims of hate group violence. These cases are funded entirely
by our supporters; we accept no legal fees from the clients we represent.
Notes on Klu Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan, with its long history of violence, is the most infamous and oldest - of American hate groups. Although black Americans have
typically been the Klan's primary target, it also has attacked Jews,
immigrants, gays and lesbians and, until recently, Catholics. Over the
years since it was formed in December 1865, the Klan has typically seen
itself as a Christian organization, although in modern times Klan groups
are motivated by a variety of theological and political ideologies.
Started during Reconstruction at the end of the Civil War, the Klan quickly
mobilized as a vigilante group to intimidate Southern blacks - and any
whites who would help them - and to prevent them from enjoying basic civil
rights. Outlandish titles (like imperial wizard and exalted cyclops), hooded
costumes, violent "night rides," and the notion that the group comprised an
"invisible empire" conferred a mystique that only added to the Klan's
popularity. Lynchings, tar-and-featherings, rapes and other violent attacks
on those challenging white supremacy became a hallmark of the Klan.
After a short but violent period, the "first era" Klan disbanded after Jim
Crow laws secured the domination of Southern whites. But the Klan
enjoyed a huge revival in the 1920s when it opposed (mainly Catholic and
Jewish) immigration. By 1925, when its followers staged a huge
Washington, D.C., march, the Klan had as many as 4 million members
and, in some states, considerable political power. But a series of sex
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scandals, internal battles over power and newspaper exposés quickly
reduced its influence.
The Klan arose a third time during the 1960s to oppose the civil rights
movement and to preserve segregation in the face of unfavorable court
rulings. The Klan's bombings, murders and other attacks took a great
many lives, including, among others, four young girls killed while preparing
for Sunday services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.
Since the 1970s the Klan has been greatly weakened by internal conflicts,
court cases, a seemingly endless series of splits and government
infiltration. While some factions have preserved an openly racist and
militant approach, others have tried to enter the mainstream, cloaking their
racism as mere "civil rights for whites." Today, the Center estimates that
there are between 5,000 and 8,000 Klan members, split among dozens of
different - and often warring - organizations that use the Klan name.
See Southern Poverty Law Center at http://www.splcenter.org/
As noted above this link gives further details on their work, maps active hate
crime groups in the US and provides further information on hate crime and
the difficulties facing migrant workers.
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Discussion Forum: Hate Crime
Go to the discussion forum and answer the following question by 1/14
1. What is meant by an organized hate crime group, provide some
examples. How much of a problem do they pose for US society?
Assignment 3: Hate Crime – 12 points by 1/17
Go to ‘Assignments’ and answer these questions:
1.Define ‘hate crime’. Outline the reporting patterns of hate crime (see above), what
incidents are most likely to be reported. Why will there be a hidden figure?
2. Do some background research on one of the following James Byrd Jr, Matthew
Shepard and Brandon Teena. Describe what happened and discuss why the case is
considered significant in terms of debates on hate crime.
Additional Information:
The James Byrd Jr case was the subject of an excellent documentary Two
Towns of Jasper (information at
http://www.twotownsofjasper.com/index.html). The documentary is in the
John Jay library. Here is a clip of the film makers.
http://www.twotownsofjasper.com/qt/twotowns_high.html
Again you may need to cut and paste the links into your browser
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Genocide
To Do:
*Read the summary below
*Watch the documentary on Rwanda
*Read Barak p. 118-119; 167-168; Genocide: Readings 1 and 2
Go to the Discussion Forum: Answer the Questions on Genocide
Note: if you have problems downloading the readings, please get in
touch immediately
Genocide
This is an extremely disturbing subject…when we think about the numbers
(seemingly ‘ordinary’ men and women) who are involved in perpetrating acts of
genocide, the unbelievable brutality that occurs..we find ourselves asking what is
this about? Why are human beings capable of such cruelty to each other? This is
hate crime at its most extreme.
What is Genocide?
The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide (article 2) defines genocide as "any of the following acts
committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical,
racial or religious group … ", including:
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Killing members of the group;
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Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
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Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to
bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
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Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
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Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
The Convention confirms that genocide, whether committed in time of
peace or war, is a crime under international law which parties to the
Convention undertake “to prevent and to punish” (article 1). The primary
responsibility to prevent and stop genocide lies with the State in which this
crime takes place.
(Source: United Nations)
Access this link from United to End Genocide and watch the clip featuring
Raphael Lemkin who first introduced the term ‘genocide’ (as with all links you
may need to cut and paste it into your browser).
http://endgenocide.org/learn/what-is-genocide/
Access this link from United to End Genocide for information on past
genocides
http://endgenocide.org/learn/past-genocides/
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A Focus on Rwanda
Access this link for background information (you may need to cut and paste it
into your browser)
http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/education/rwandagenocid
e.shtml
Genocide: Reading 1
Access the link below to read an interview with Philip Gourevitch
Gourevitch is the author of We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will
Be Killed With Our Families, an in-depth account of the Rwanda genocide. In
the aftermath of the genocide he spent over nine months in Rwanda trying to
understand how this extraordinary crime had come to pass, how it was
organized, how the Western powers had stood by and watched it happen, and
how Rwandans are living with its legacy.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/evil/interviews/gourevitc
h.html
Watch this documentary ‘The Ghosts of Rwanda’ streamed from John Jay
Library. Please note it does have some harrowing scenes in it. If the link
doesn’t work, go to the John Jay library site and stream it directly.
http://digital.films.com.ez.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/PortalViewVideo.aspx?xtid=4427
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Genocide: Reading 2
Gregory H. Stanton, on the ‘Eight Stages of Genocide’ and What
Should be Done to Prevent it.
Pay particular attention to what he says on dehumanization – this is particularly
important to our discussion on the causes of violence.
This clip is from youtube and features Stanton discussing the 8 stages:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B70d2Z9yago
THE GENOCIDAL PROCESS
Prevention of genocide requires a structural understanding of the genocidal process.
Genocide has eight stages or operational processes. The first stages precede later stages,
but continue to operate throughout the genocidal process. Each stage reinforces the
others. A strategy to prevent genocide should attack each stage, each process. The eight
stages of genocide are classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization,
polarization, preparation, extermination, and denial.
Classification
All languages and cultures require classification - division of the natural and social world
into categories. We distinguish and classify objects and people. All cultures have
categories to distinguish between “us” and “them,” between members of our group and
others. We treat different categories of people differently. Racial and ethnic
classifications may be defined by absurdly detailed laws -- the Nazi Nuremberg laws, the
"one drop" laws of segregation in America, or apartheid racial classification laws in
South Africa. Racist societies often prohibit mixed categories and outlaw miscegenation.
Bipolar societies are the most likely to have genocide. In Rwanda and Burundi, children
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are the ethnicity of their father, either Tutsi or Hutu. No one is mixed. Mixed marriages
do not result in mixed children.
Symbolization
We use symbols to name and signify our classifications. We name some people Hutu and
others Tutsi, or Jewish or Gypsy, or Christian or Muslim. Sometimes physical
characteristics - skin color or nose shape - become symbols for classifications. Other
symbols, like customary dress or facial scars, are socially imposed by groups on their
own members. After the process has reached later stages (dehumanization, organization,
and polarization) genocidal governments in the preparation stage often require members
of a targeted group to wear an identifying symbol or distinctive clothing -- e.g. the yellow
star. The Khmer Rouge forced people from the Eastern Zone to wear a blue-checked
scarf, marking them for forced relocation and elimination.
Dehumanization
Classification and symbolization are fundamental operations in all cultures. They become
steps of genocide only when combined with dehumanization. Denial of the humanity of
others is the step that permits killing with impunity. The universal human abhorrence of
murder of members of one's own group is overcome by treating the victims as less than
human. In incitements to genocide the target groups are called disgusting animal names Nazi propaganda called Jews "rats" or "vermin"; Rwandan Hutu hate radio referred to
Tutsis as "cockroaches." The targeted group is often likened to a “disease”, “microbes”,
“infections” or a “cancer” in the body politic. Bodies of genocide victims are often
mutilated to express this denial of humanity. Such atrocities then become the justification
for revenge killings, because they are evidence that the killers must be monsters, not
human beings themselves.
Organization
Genocide is always collective because it derives its impetus from group identification. It
is always organized, often by states but also by militias and hate groups. Planning need
not be elaborate: Hindu mobs may hunt down Sikhs or Muslims, led by local leaders.
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Methods of killing need not be complex: Tutsis in Rwanda died from machetes; Muslim
Chams in Cambodia from hoe-blades to the back of the neck ("Bullets must not be
wasted," was the rule at Cambodian extermination prisons, expressing the
dehumanization of the victims.) The social organization of genocide varies by culture. It
reached its most mechanized, bureaucratic form in the Nazi death camps. But it is always
organized, whether by the Nazi SS or the Rwandan Interahamwe. Death squads may be
trained for mass murder, as in Rwanda, and then force everyone to participate, spreading
hysteria and overcoming individual resistance. Terrorist groups will pose one of the
greatest threats of genocidal mass murder in the future as they gain access to chemical,
biological, and even nuclear weapons.
Polarization
Genocide proceeds in a downward cycle of killings until, like a whirlpool, it reaches the
vortex of mass murder. Killings by one group may provoke revenge killings by the other.
Such massacres are aimed at polarization, the systematic elimination of moderates who
would slow the cycle. The first to be killed in a genocide are moderates from the killing
group who oppose the extremists: the Hutu Supreme Court Chief Justice and Prime
Minister in Rwanda, the Tutsi Archbishop in Burundi. Extremists target moderate leaders
and their families. The center cannot hold. The most extreme take over, polarizing the
conflict until negotiated settlement is impossible.
Preparation
Preparation for genocide includes identification. Lists of victims are drawn up. Houses
are marked. Maps are made. Individuals are forced to carry ID cards identifying their
ethnic or religious group. Identification greatly speeds the slaughter. In Germany, the
identification of Jews, defined by law, was performed by a methodical bureaucracy. In
Rwanda, identity cards showed each person's ethnicity. In the genocide, Tutsis could then
be easily pulled from cars at roadblocks and murdered. Throwing away the cards did not
help, because anyone who could not prove he was Hutu, was presumed to be Tutsi. Hutu
militiamen conducted crude mouth exams to test claims of Hutu identity.
Preparation also includes expropriation of the property of the victims. It may include
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concentration: herding of the victims into ghettos, stadiums, or churches. In its most
extreme form, it even includes construction of extermination camps, as in Nazi-ruled
Europe, or conversion of existing buildings – temples and schools – into extermination
centers in Cambodia. Transportation of the victims to these killing centers is then
organized and bureaucratized.
Extermination
The seventh step, the final solution, is extermination. It is considered extermination,
rather than murder, because the victims are not considered human. They are vermin, rats
or cockroaches. Killing is described by euphemisms of purification: “ethnic cleansing” in
Bosnia, “ratonade” (rat extermination) in Algeria. Targeted members of alien groups are
killed, often including children. Because they are not considered persons, their bodies are
mutilated, buried in mass graves or burnt like garbage.
Denial
Every genocide is followed by denial. The mass graves are dug up and hidden. The
historical records are burned, or closed to historians. Even during the genocide, those
committing the crimes dismiss reports as propaganda. Afterwards such deniers are called
“revisionists.” Others deny through more subtle means: by characterizing the reports as
“unconfirmed” or “alleged” because they do not come from officially approved sources;
by minimizing the number killed; by quarreling about whether the killing fits the legal
definition of genocide (“definitionalism”); by claiming that the deaths of the perpetrating
group exceeded that of the victim group, or that the deaths were the result of civil war,
not genocide. In fact, civil war and genocide are not mutually exclusive. Most genocides
occur during wars.
A full strategy for preventing genocide should include an attack on each of genocide's
operational processes.
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* This article was originally written in 1996 and was presented as the first Working Paper
(GS 01) of the Yale Program in Genocide Studies in 1998.
1.
Gregory H. Stanton is the James Farmer Professor of Human Rights, The
University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, Virginia; President, Genocide Watch;
Chairman, The International Campaign to End Genocide; Director, The Cambodian
Genocide Project; Vice President, International Association of Genocide Scholars.
Genocide Today: Syria?
There are fears that the situation in Syria is bordering on genocide. Read this
report from Genocide Watch.
http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/education/rwandagenocid
e.shtml
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Discussion Forum
Go to the discussion forum and answer the following questions by 1/14
1. What is genocide?
2. Briefly describe what led up to the genocide in Rwanda. Do you think it
could have been prevented?
3. How can we stop genocide occurring in the future (think about what
Stanton has to say)?
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