Why Do People Commit Hate Crimes?

Why do people commit hate crimes? Hate crimes are a problem that is spread through out the country. They are simply based off a persons negative biased opinions of a certain race, religion, sexual preference, or their ethnicity. Lynching, cross burning, synagogue vandalism, gay "bashing", ect. are all examples of hate crimes committed. Most hate crimes back in the day were committed against African Americans because of their race. Today, hate crimes are committed against a wide variety of people; the rich, the poor, drunks, and drug addicts are all examples of people who can be victims of hate crimes. (ABC-Clio; Hate Crimes)

Hate crimes are against anyone, someone's ethnicity is a huge contribute to hate crimes. People who are from Spanish speaking countries are usually always a target for hate crimes to be committed. Being racist is still considered a hate crime because even though you are not being directly violent with a person it's all about the choice of words you are using, and being biased against a certain ethnicity. (ABC- Clio; Hate Crimes)

Even though most people would not consider rape or sexual abuse to be a form of hate crimes, they are. Women and men are getting raped, and people fail to recognize this as a type of hate crime; someone is physically harming another person, whether it is because they are just doing it to show who is more superior it does not matter, people could also be doing it out of hatred, or anger; which is why most hate crimes are even committed. (ABC- Clio; Hate Crimes)

Hate crimes are even preformed on people who have a physical or mental disability, these people are brought up in normal conversation, what others fail to realize is how rude and careless it is. People with a disability are thought to be less deserving or unequal to "normal" people. People without disabilities think it is okay to then physically, mentally, and or emotionally abuse these people. (ABC- Clio; Hate Crimes)

Are hate crimes under reported? Yes, hate crimes are under reported. People rarely ever report hate crimes because of fear, they don't want to be involved in any type of relation to the crime because they do not want the person who committed the crime to go after them too.

Anti-LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Transsexual) hate crimes are committed against people who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transsexual, because they are "different", fear is also a big factor of this as well. People are afraid of the "Gay Plague". They do not want to contract an STD or other infection from them. The government does not do much to prevent this; however, if they are asked they will stress that it is not acceptable, other than that, they do not speak up. They stay silent like the rest of our society. (Bender, pg, 120-136)

The amount of hate crimes inflicted on American