Hate Crimes
...apart. In the days following 9/11/01 a different type of hate crimes occurred. Americans started to fear the Arab people. Many Arabs fled to their country because their feared for their safety. One incident occurred here on Long Island, in Huntington a man tried to run down an Arab woman walking across a parking lot. Why did this begin to happen? Fear and distrust. When profiling individuals who are the perpetrators of hate crimes many different factors play diverse roles. Those that commit these crimes are not mentally ill, nor can they be diagnosed schizophrenic or manic depressive. They are not psychotic, but can be consistently very troubled or disturbed. Many are also antisocial. Looking into their childhood many offenders have high levels of parental abuse. Many have committed smaller crimes leading up to more serious ones, as well as failing to see anything wrong with what they have done. Causes of hate crimes seem to always come back to fear and ignorance: fear of the unknown, fear of other people unlike themselves. We are constantly comparing ourselves to others. Peers and families can also attribute to the causes of hate crimes. In gangs peers plays a large role. When a child is raised in a prejudice environment they often sh...