Hate Crime Victimization - Essay Example

This study was based on a total of more than 5000 hate crime criminals. FBI reports that the highest percentage of criminals belonged to the white race (FBI, 2011). There is a lack of data regarding the age of offenders, but according to a report that was created on the statistics of 1997 to 1999, the majority of the offenders were below the age of 18 (Justice.gov, 2001).

            Certain individuals belonging to different gender, race, religion, and ethnicity are constantly being victimized through hate crimes. The Bureau of Justice Statistics has reported that most of the hate crimes were carried out against victims aged 12 to 17 and victims mostly belonged to the white race (Bjs.gov, 2013). These victims even belonged to households that were earning less than a total income of $25,000 per year and around 61 percent of the reported victims belonged to the male gender (Bjs.gov, 2013). The report even states that it is quite difficult to predict the characteristics of victims due to the lower number of reporting.

            There is one single cause of hate crime and that is that the offender is prejudiced or biased against a characteristic of the victim. The offenders mostly target victims on the basis of their gender, age, sexual orientation, and/or religion. The offender is most likely to hold a negative viewpoint against the victim’s characteristics due to a lack of tolerance for their characteristic. Victims of hate crimes have to suffer various consequences that may impact them individually and even their family members. Victims may experience death or injury or their property might be damaged. The chances are that victims may even turn into offenders in order to seek revenge.

            In order to tackle the issue of hate crime, policymakers and the criminal justice system needs to tackle the cause of hate crime. The main cause of hate crime is intolerance towards the characteristics of other members of society. In order to curb this cause the members of society have to play a major role. They need to ensure that their members are tolerant towards the members who belong to other competing groups. They need to provide diversity training to their members in order to solve the issue of hate crimes. This will help in removing misunderstandings that members of one group have against other group members.