Combating hate crimes

1. What you can do to prevent it Combating hate crimes

2. facts • Stop The Hate is owned and operated by Campus Pride, the leading national nonprofit 501(c)3 for student leaders and campus groups working to create a safer college environment for LGBT students across the United States. The program was founded by Shane L. Windmeyer and was developed in partnership with the Anti-Defamation League, Association of College Unions International, The Southern Poverty Law Center, the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence, the Matthew Sheppard Foundation, Wellborn Institute and the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention.The Stop The Hate program reflects our commitment to provide social justice tools for combating bias and hate crimes in all its forms. Stop The Hate is dedicated to provide the necessary resources and educational training to combat hate on college campuses; and to actively seek partnerships and collaboration among various organizations with similar concerns to address bias and hate behaviors.Program MissionStop The Hate supports colleges and universities in preventing and combating hate on campus as well as fostering the development of community. The national program serves as the premiere source of anti-hate educational resources for higher education institutions and campus communities.Program ObjectivesStop the Hate shall develop and implement strategies that will reduce hate crimes on college campuses. The program objectives of the educational initiative are:• to foster a comprehensive approach to and comprehensive perspective on the hate crime problem on college campuses;• to encourage dialogue between colleges and universities and from within the campus community to initiate a coordinated national strategy to effect change;• to develop a system of delivery and resources specific to colleges and universities on hate crime prevention;• to create a national coordinated public awareness campaign to communicate a statement of anti-hate and behaviors/expectations for students, faculty, and staff to share with their campuses;• to understand how to manage freedom of speech/First Amendment issues and the skills to manage student concerns, such as Nation of Islam (Farrakhan et al), the New Black Panther Party, the World Church of the Creator; Holocaust Denial Advertisements; Ex-Gay Reparative Movement;• to develop ongoing partnerships with agencies and associations to create effective strategies and educational resources geared toward colleges and universities;• to acquire the tools to begin to address bias-related incidents on campus; and• to produce a Train the Trainer program that will enhance our ability to actuate change because of its grassroots outreach on college campuses.

3. problems The Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HCPA) would strengthen the ability of the Justice Department to prosecute hate crimes based on race, color, national origin, and religion and give the Department the power to prosecute certain hate crimes committed because of the victim's sexual orientation, gender, or disability The problem is we are facing a lot of deaths through the years more than we should be. Statistics show that we will be the lowest population if this continue.

4. Solutions/tips on hate crime • Always have a buddy when your going somewhere. • Never stay too close to a stranger • The facts state that when you run to places with a lot of witnesses you stand a better chance of living • Don’t let peer pressure get you into too much trouble. • Be your own person never take stupid risks.

5. What you can do to prevent • Hate Crime: A Definition • A crime in which the defendant intentionally selects a victim because of the actual or perceived race, color, national origin, ethnicity, gender, gender expression or identity, disability, or sexual orientation of any person • Hate can cause many problems but one thing you could do is set yourself aside from all the haters and pre-mature people

6. Hate Crimes & Their Impact • Hate crimes send a message that certain groups of us are not welcome and unsafe in a particular community. As a result, studies indicate that hate crimes appear to have more serious psychological effects on the victims and the communities they represent than do other crimes. Research indicates that victims of hate crimes often link their vulnerability to their personal, cultural, or spiritual identity. The result is that victims of hate crimes often suffer greater emotional trauma than other crime victims.

7. Federal Laws Do Not Go Far Enough • Section 245 of Title 18 of the US Code only permits federal prosecution of hate crimes for intentional interference with the enjoyment of a federal right or benefit, such as voting. Thus, when the government prosecutes a hate crimes offender, it must prove that the crime occurred (1) because the victim was enjoying a federally protected activity, and (2) because of the victim's membership in a particular group. This is a difficult burden which has prevented investigation and prosecution of numerous hate crimes. In fact, since 1969 there have never been more than 10 indictments brought under § 245 in any given year. In contrast the proposed legislation, the HCPA, would completely remove the first requirement and expand the second requirement to include the categories of sexual orientation, gender and disability.

8. Other solutions include • Adults Can... • Set a good example by showing respect for others through actions, attitudes, and remarks. • Organize forums to examine possible sources of bigotry and hate violence in the community and brainstorm preventive actions. • Encourage law enforcement to collect hate crime statistics and make them available to the public. • Raise public awareness that bias-motivated incidents are crimes and should be reported to law enforcement. • Support training in identifying and responding to bias-motivated crime for police and sheriff's departments. • After getting approval from the investigating law enforcement agency, immediately clean up any bias-motivated graffiti. Paint a mural celebrating diversity in its place. • Work with schools, businesses, or community groups to sponsor poster or essay contests on "How Bias-related Crimes Hurt Our Community." • Offer support to a co-worker or neighbor who has been a victim of a bias-motivated crime

9. Solution continuation • Young People Can... • Start a conflict resolution program in their school. • Say hello to, and have a conversation with, someone who may appear different from them. • Reject all stereotypes. • Report incidents of discrimination or hate crimes to parents and teachers. • Start a peer education program - to teach bias awareness to younger children. • Organize a community-wide Day of Respect or Day of Dialog, in which all members in your community can share strategies to prevent hate crime. • Mentor a younger child. Use their creative talents-sing, -write, or paint to share positive anti-violence messages. • Start a school or town crime watch program. • Advocate violence prevention by writing to their local government representative and sharing their ideas. • Offer support to a classmate who has been a victim of a bias-motivated crime

10. The reason • Why we act as we do • Research by University of Colorado at Boulder psychologists Bernadette Park, PhD, and Charles Judd, PhD, helps explain why some people came to so rapidly mistrust Arab Americans after the Sept. 11 incidents--aside from the obvious fact that they share a similar ethnic background with the terrorists. Longstanding research by the team and by the other social psychologists shows that people tend to see groups they're not a part of as more homogeneous than their own group, a phenomenon known as the "out-group homogeneity effect." • "When you meet a person who's a member of an out-group, you're less likely to individuate them, to pay attention to individual characteristics, than when you meet members of your in-group," Judd explains. That's because stereotypes concerning out-group members are stronger than those of in-group members; people are therefore more willing to ignore individuating information about members of out-group's, lumping them all into a single disliked category, he says

11. resources • Hate crime.com • Hate.org