Hate Crimes Book Review - Part 1

Specific hate crimes are usually tied to gender, race, ethnicity, religion, poverty, politics, sexual orientation, Anti-Semitism, environmental protection, and several other social conditions. The book touches on each of these issues and provides controversial and contradictory information so that the reader can have different points of view. Therefore, one can make their own decision and can start critically thinking about the various issues.

The author places importance on not only reasons for hate crimes but possible solutions such as expanding the current laws to include many types of hate crimes. In addition, the writer brings out the flip side of each argument by showing the opposing view point. For example, in the first chapter he stresses how serious hate crimes are in the world today. Then, in a later chapter he states these crimes may not be that serious and are over exaggerated. The writer explains that the Uniform Crime Reporting System (UCR) was formed to collect data against hate crimes. However, many enforcement agencies don't use the UCR. This makes it extremely difficult to get true statistics on these crimes. The author in this book has to base his arguments on many different methods since there is a lack of statistics. The book Hate Crimes was brought together by combining different types of research such as newspapers, periodicals, other books, government documents, and publications of organizations.

One of the author's main debates is whether stricter laws should be enacted against hate crimes. By enforcing stricter laws against hate crimes, minority populations would be more protected. As a result, less people would be victimized. On the contrary, enforcing these laws would be unconstitutional because it goes against our freedom of speech. The author points out that people can have prejudice thoughts and speak their mind. That is part of our First Amendment. Thinking, believing, and even hating is not something government can punish. Yet, on the other hand, people may believe that the expression of hateful and prejudice ideas causes harm to others even if there is no criminal misconduct.

Stricter hate crime laws may actually increase prejudice rather than reduce it. This happens because a person won't change their bigoted ways after being convicted of a hate crime. Many times that person is now viewed as a hero or martyr among their peers. Now, others will follow suit and show hatred against other groups to increase their standing among their friends. So this vicious cycle continues and produces more hate crimes rather than eliminate them. More importantly, sending people to jail without reform doesn't create positive change. Jails are the most prejudice places in our society.

Another main contention is about the extent of hate crimes and violence against women. Violence Against Women's Act (VAWA) was passed in 1994 to protect women from violence. Since men are typically stronger, women are more vulnerable and needed this act to protect them. The author then showed that the VAWA Act was anti-male. Some women made false claims but were atomically believed. Many feminists tried to play on people's emotions and allege violence when in many instances it didn't occur. The worst injustice is that millions of dollars were given to VAWA to help provide free legal assistance to victims but accused men could not receive assistance. Our Constitution is based on innocence until proven guilty. Men did not receive this right.

Whether you're buying a Nickel Shower Faucet or outfitting your bathroom with a fully Brushed Nickel Shower you want to make sure you do as much research and due diligence before following through with a purchase or contract worker to ensure you're happy with the end result. With so many products and options floating around, it can be difficult to make the right choice, but if you do enough looking around, then you're bound to make the right one!

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Hate Crimes Book Review - Part 2

These acts occurred in 140 cities throughout 39 U.S. states. Another statistic given was that the threat of being physically or sexually assaulted is 4 to 10 times greater to people with developmental disabilities than for other adults. Many more statistics were scattered throughout the book which made his arguments stronger.

One major weakness of the book was that the reading was somewhat confusing because the author went back and forth between different viewpoints. Instead of completely explaining one side of the argument, he flip-flopped between both viewpoints without enough clarification. In addition, the author was redundant because he repeated many ideas and arguments over and over again. Therefore, the organization of this book was on major weakness.

This series of books (including this one on Hate Crimes) has been important resources for librarians, teachers and students for many years. Chapters are focused around several key questions and are answered with diverse opinions representing all points on the political spectrum. This book gives different opinions encountered in society. From this book people will begin to develop critical thinking skills. The strong statistical data in the book from many sources made this book more convincing.

In the last few years I have seen a few movies related to hate crimes. Schindler's List and American History X are two of the main ones that come to mind. Both validated the author's viewpoints on racism and Anti-Semitism. The way the author portrayed the KKK, Skinheads, and Nazis were similar to the movies. After reading an article in Quest Magazine (Volume 15 No. 3) called "Crimes Against People With Disabilities", the same statistical data (the threat of being physically or sexually assaulted is 4 to 10 times greater for people with disabilities) was provided in that article and this book I have just read. This shows that the authors data is valid, accurate, and up to date. I also read an article from Street Spirit (March 2006) called "Epidemic of Hate Crimes Against Homeless People". The same example was also given in both this article and the book I read on Hate Crimes. This example was about a homeless man being beaten and left unconscious at a church in Fairfield, California. By finding the exact same example in two sources makes the author's view point valid.

Whether you're buying a Brushed Nickel Shower-Faucet or outfitting your bathroom with a fully Brushed Nickel Shower you want to make sure you do as much research and due diligence before following through with a purchase or contract worker to ensure you're happy with the end result. With so many products and options floating around, it can be difficult to make the right choice, but if you do enough looking around, then you're bound to make the right one!

View the original article here