My community problem is in relation to the hate crimes in Soweto, Meadowlands. A hate crime can be identified as “a crime , usually violent, motivated by prejudice or intolerance towards an individual’s national origin, ethnicity, colour, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation or disability” (Dictionary.com, 2015).
Hate crimes differentiated from other forms of crime are unlawful crimes that are prejudice-centred towards a specific type of person(s). They also defined as message crimes, implemented as warnings to pursued groups. Examples of these crimes are racial attacks, sexism, arson, homophobia, rape, murder, harassment and hate speech etc.
Such misconduct is a direct infringement to numerous human rights listed in the South African
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“He allegedly fired at a group of people trying to rob his shop” (Anon: 2015). Despite obvious hate occurrences being witnessed by community members at large and media attention being received by the public as well, sound strategies to address prejudice issues have not yet been formulated by representatives of the government. In fact, (Anon: 2013), “there is currently no mechanism for reporting or recording hate crimes in South Africa in a way that distinguishes them from other crimes”. This raises multiple concerns about the state of safety of the nation, and questions the community policing department’s capabilities and whether it is there to serve and protect its people or not. It also re-introduces discrimination, a practice that existed in South Africa’s old …show more content…
These policies will serve to be the driving-force behind the prevention of hate crimes from occurring
Calls for intervention as a means to address hate crimes in South African communities have been set in motion particularly by the South African Crime Working Group (SACWG) and several governing bodies that support its initiative including the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa, the Centre for Applied Psychology of the University of South Africa and Human Rights First. In its report the SACWG proposed recommendations to the South African government, as a way to combat hate crimes. Some of these recommendations are as follows:
For the President to establish a permanent body in the office of the Deputy President to ensure effective coordination of the various government department’s programs on hate
The law criminalizes violent acts (and attempts to commit violent acts undertaken with a dangerous weapon) when those acts occur because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin of any person.” This article talked about a devastating
A hate crime is a violent act against people, property, or organizations because of the group to which they belong or identify with. Hate crimes are committed against many different groups of people. Many hate crimes are based on racial or religious bias. Racial bias is the largest cause of hate crimes. Hate crimes are a specific type of crime committed against individuals or groups because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, age, or
Sakia Gunn was a fifteen-year-old black teen who was violently targeted for a murdering due to her identifying as a lesbian. Leah Lakshmi realized the magnitude of this hate crime and used it as a platform to bring awareness to the situation. There has been and currently exists a structural problem that consistently harms people of color. Historically hate crimes were blatant, showing up as lynchings and other publicly violent portrayals. However, recently hate crimes have become more invisible.
Aliya’s Opinion Essay On The Hate U Give Most people live their whole lives not knowing the significance of addressing discrimination in discriminatory-prone neighbourhoods. Hence, I recommend that everyone reads The Hate U Give, which educates a powerful message about discrimination. In this book, we see how the effects of police brutality and white privilege make the lives of people of colour less enticing and dangerous. For instance, we observe how the negligence of the police and society has resulted in the loss of innocent lives, with the police's stereotyped presumptions and prejudices being rationalized as "self-defense" or "police lives matter too" when they have taken a life without incurring any penalty or responsibility.
-Hate crimes, are not justifiable the reason why is because they’re, ‘bias.’ The definition of a ‘Hate Crime’ on page 604 is defined as “a bias related crime, committed against an individual that is motivated by bias regarding race, color, religion, disability, and sexual orientation.” Committing a crime just because of the color, sexuality, religion, or disability of a person isn’t justifiable. The reason why it’s not justifiable is because, the person committing the hate crime wouldn’t want someone else, to commit such an act towards themself.
Even though people might be led to believe that racism is an ever-decreasing issue in the globalised and multicultural world of today, recent debates and elections concerning transnational initiatives and issues such as the EU have provided basis to believe otherwise. The United Kingdom, in particular, has over the last few months faced significant backlash and challenges as a response to the first ever successful vote to leave the European Union. As a result of the Brexit referendum, the UK has experienced a rapid increase in recorded anti-immigrant hate crimes. Regarded as an example of this is the case of Arek Jóźwik, who was beaten to death in an unprovoked attack near Harlow, launching investigations into the suspected teenage perpetrators
Racial Profiling and the disproportionate use of police force are controversial political issues. Debates on racial bias in policing continue to reverberate across the country making headlines, aside from the importance of the debate on racial profiling and police use of force, such events create intergroup conflict, foreground stereotypes and trigger discriminatory responses. A serious issue in today’s society is the rising tension between the police force and the community which has developed through racial profiling and police brutality. In New York City, the controversial “stop, question, and frisk” policy was endorsed by some as essential for reducing crime rates (MacDonald 2001) and challenged by others as racially biased with a heavy burden placed on affected individuals and communities (Fagan et al. 2010).
Introduction Racism is still visible and prominent in the country, particularly in communities. A current issue of it being present is Racial Profiling. It has been reported that some Law Enforcements stop drivers, motorists, pedestrians of certain types of racial or ethnical groups because they believe they are more likely to commit street-level crimes. Black or African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and Middle Easterners are said to be the ones dealing and experiencing this issue. These racial groups have been proclaimed searched, received countless tickets, warned, verbally assaulted and arrested by some Law Enforcements.
According to Gerstenfeld, hate crimes “may or may not include sexual orientation, gender, national origin, physical or mental disability, age, or political affiliation.” Some argue that every group should be protected by hate crime legislation, but this runs the risk of watering down the significance of such protections. The groups that are most frequently targeted by hate crimes including African Americans, gays and lesbians, Jews, and Muslims should be prioritized over other groups. Historically, the most targeted groups in the United States are African Americans, LGBT community, Jews, and Muslims. These groups are undoubtedly in the most need for protections provided by hate crime laws.
Hate Crime is a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” If an African American commits the same crime as an Caucasian it is more likely for the black person to be charged and arrested due to the racial issues we have today. There are many pros and cons towards the issue of racial crime, but hate crime is still a very difficult issue for our country to overcome. In order to overcome the issue of hate crime it would require changing legislation, public and police attitudes.
Intolerance of Society Many tragic events are caused by the world’s inability to accept differences between human beings. This concept is seen throughout the history of the criminal justice system. Conflicts like lynching come as a result of intolerance, and as Betty Smith once said, “Intolerance is a thing that causes war, pogrom, crucifixions, lynchings, and makes people cruel to little children and each other. It is responsible for the most viciousness, violence, terror, and heart and soul breaking the world.” The Criminal Justice System is a huge part of why the south, or even America as a whole, had so many problems with lynching which is exemplified in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
This essay is an effort to discuss why matters or race and racism are more than just the attitudes and behaviours of individuals. I will be discussing what racism is and the different forms of racism and I will explain how racism is socially constructed, furthermore, I will give a brief discussion on the history of racism and also discuss some of the key concepts and perspectives to offer a sociological analysis of the complexities of politics of difference and identity, furthermore, I will show how this applies to schools in the South African context. Race is one of the traits that accompanies a person’s social identity, it contributes to the definition and formation of a person’s social identity. Race can be defined as a person’s physical characteristics such as skin, hair or eye colour, it is one of the factors used to differentiate and categorise people where people can be categorised as black,
The discussion of hate crime has been very delicate over the past few months, from ISIS to police brutality. In this paper situations involving hate crime will be discussed such as the background; history of hate crime like the holocaust; special groups and genders that get “hated” on such as blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, and Jews; examples of hate crime; prominent figures like Donald Trump and his anti- Muslim and anti-immigrant policies as well as news pieces of hate crime; groups for and against other races like the black lives matter movement; statistics of hate crime and hate groups in the U.S.; the argument that
In conclusion, it’s evident that hate crimes leave a lasting legacy in the fabric of society that, if left unsolved can lead to deepening conflict between the different races.
The intolerant attitudes learned during Apartheid still dwell among some of the citizens. Another explanation of the violence that occurs in South Africa is blamed on the ANC government’s service delivery bad record, what Apartheid didn’t damage, the ANC did. South African xenophobia has also been explained by the level of social and economic inequality in the country. It has been noted that the greatest punishments of xenophobic violence have been carried out in borders of formal society, where foreign nationals compete with the poorest South Africans to make themselves a basic living. And then lastly, South Africa’s immigration policies are also blamed for exasperating the problem.