Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Many people in this harsh world are faced by hatred among the people of their country. This hatred may started out as a simple glare. Continuing on to a sudden change in behaviour. Which in most cases leads people to taking a huge step. This huge step is which is done by some people of the community is called a hate crime. This hate crime is just among the first steps that lead others to follow through into doing the same. As it becomes acceptable by society for them them to continue. However, these hate crimes have a huge impact on the victims. Unless society becomes more acceptable and loving towards these people, hate crimes will continue to happen.
Hate crimes are defined as any incident or crime that is directed towards the victim because of the hostility and prejudice against a group of people. There are many types of hate crimes that occur in many areas of the world.
In the eyes of the victim nothing scares a person more than being targeted by a person that is anonymous. This constant targeting faced by a social group in which the show of hatred is evident are known as hate. This happens in many countries around the world and continues to happen as no serious action is taken against it, especially in western countries. Where victims are mainly not valued by the majority of society and suffer the consequences of this devaluation.
These crimes are directed to people who are socially excluded from society based on the bias opinion present in the majority. This leads to certain people being devalued by society. People that are devalued in society are the main predators for a hate crime. This is because society already devalues these people and making a hate crime against them will be more acceptable by the majority . The other reason for making these people the main victims for hate crimes is due to the fact that they are vulnerable. This makes the hate crime easier to fulfill as vulnerable people will be easily broken.Now the sole purpose of these hate crimes is to scare and break the victim along with the community that they belong to. By sending a message to the community that they do not belong in this society or are hated by society and they scare the person even more. Now these messages are mainly messages that are extreme on a scale of being anti someone or something. Leading the victim to feel even more devalued in society and broken down. Fulfilling the purpose of the hate crime.
The effect on the victims
The data revealed on hate crimes depends on the crime reported to the police. In this case, many victims fail to report this crime leaving it unattended. In the recent report of 2008, the evidence revealed that majority of hate crimes are not based off of physical violence. The majority of hate crimes lie in verbal abuse, assaults and criminal damage. What makes this type of crime stand out is that this type of crime hurts the victim . The effects of these hate crimes present a high threat to physical and psychological safety of the victim. The signs of psychological stress include symptoms of excessive stress that include physical, emotional and cognitive behavior. This is how this crime not only physically hurting the victim but also hurting the identity of the victim.
http://cilvektiesibas.org.lv/site/attachments/30/01/2012/Naida_noziegums_ENG_cietusajiem_Internetam.pdf
http://www.apa.org/advocacy/interpersonal-violence/hate-crimes.aspx