In a broad spectrum, hate crimes refer to the crimes committed when the perpetrator targets and offends another person based on their personal perceptions about the victim or membership to a certain group in the society (Gerstenfeld, 2013). In other words, different State laws in the United States of America recognizes it as bias-motivated crimes. Different states have enacted different laws to curb the spread and occurrence of hate crimes in the society in different crimes. This paper aims at discussing the different hate crime laws in New York State besides discussing the different dimensions of the regulations.
Hate crime laws in existence in New York State. New York is one of the many American states to enact and adopt hate crime laws based on sexual orientation and religious affiliations among others as a way of ensuring an equitable society. For instance, New York has adopted Bias-Motivate
...d Violence and Intimidation laws in which the statute related to the State provides provisions that help prevent religious motivated discriminations (Gerstenfeld, 2013). This regulation helps prevent the desecration of property that is aligned to any group in the society. It helps prevent bigotry related to religious affiliations that can lead to destruction of institutions such as churches, Mosques and Synagogue help preventing the pluralistic damage that can otherwise affect the society. Secondly, New York has Race, Religion and Ethnicity regulations that protect every citizen from interference in worship. This is extended to political affiliations and protects citizens in New York from discrimination or bigotry based on political membership (Altschiller, 2015). In addition, New York has State laws that protect citizens from crimes based on sexual orientations and gender discriminations.
Which
groups are protected from hate or bias crimes under New York’s hate crimes law? In New York, various groups in the society are protected from hate crimes. One of the groups covered in New York state law is the group of the disabled who are protected from any kind of discrimination in their capacity in the society. Secondly, men, women and especially homosexuals are protected from discrimination based on their sexual orientation. Finally, religious groups such as Christians, Hindus and Muslims are protected from discrimination based on their way of worship (Chakraborti & Garland, 2009).
Advantages of hate crime laws. As a matter of fact, hate crime laws are very essential in building an equitable and peaceful State. They help create awareness in the society on the vulnerability of the groups affected hence preventing more victimizations (Woods, 2008). In addition, hate crimes laws help create protection in terms of sexual orientation especially when homosexuals are involved hence helping protect gays and lesbians.
Disadvantages of Hate crime laws. One of the stumbling blocks of hate crime laws is that they protect people from crimes which are already protected in the existing laws since hate crimes are crimes in general. Secondly, some individuals believe that hate crimes are unfair since victims are treated unequally depending on their characteristics (Woods, 2008). In some cases, hate crimes laws seem to disadvantageous in that they are sued by homosexual activists as political tools. Furthermore, it is believed that this laws act as barriers and contravention to the freedom of speech. Finally, critics of hate crime laws believe that this laws accord the affected groups additional protection by giving them a different class
in the society far from what they are.
In a personal view, hate crime laws exists because they protect specific groups in the society from unfair treatments based on characteristics they could not control. Therefore, it is worth concluding that hate crime laws help enhance harmonious living, equality and justice to all individuals in the society.
References
- Altschiller, D. (2015). Hate Crimes: A Reference Handbook: A Reference Handbook. Abc-clio.
- Chakraborti, N., & Garland, J. (2009). Hate crime: impact, causes and responses. Sage Publications.
- Gerstenfeld, P. B. (2013). Hate crimes: Causes, controls, and controversies. Sage.
- Woods, J. B. (2008). Taking the'Hate'Out of Hate Crimes: Applying Unfair Advantage Theory to Justify the Enhanced Punishment of Opportunistic Bias Crimes. UCLA Law Review, 56, 489.
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