NCJ Number
203039
Date Published
September 2003
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This document discusses hate crime and responding to bias-motivated incidents on college/university campuses.
Abstract
Hate crimes are defined as crimes that are motivated by the offender’s bias toward the victim’s status. A hate incident is an action in which a person is made aware that his/her status is offensive to another, but does not rise to the level of a crime. Federal and State reporting requirements vary in the definitions and victim categories for hate crimes. Under conditions of increasing cultural diversity, the differences between groups become salient on an everyday basis. A small number of students make themselves more secure by demeaning or attacking, either verbally or physically, those classmates they believe to be inferior by virtue of that group’s background, race, or creed. The very presence of minority students on a campus may give rise to such behavior. Hate episodes can be classified in terms of offender motivations into three distinct types identified as reactive, impulsive, and premeditated. In reactive hate episodes, the hatemongers seize on what they consider as a triggering incident to justify their expression of anger. Impulsive hate offenses are committed by perpetrators that are looking for excitement. Impulsive episodes satisfy the offenders’ profound psychological need to feel important and gain a sense of belonging. Those that perpetrate a premeditated hate episode are convinced that all out-group members are subhumans that are bent on destroying the culture, the economy, or the purity of racial heritage. The Community Relations Service (CRS), a component of the United States Department of Justice, is a specialized Federal conciliation service available to State and local officials to help resolve and prevent racial and ethnic conflict. CRS provides conflict resolution and reconciliation services when requested by school officials, faculty, students, and law enforcement. CRS has been highly successful in resolving campus racial issues, all with outcomes designed by the interested parties, not the mediator. Victim assistance is one of the most important aspects of any hate crime incident response policy.