The many different causes and motivations behind hate crime perpetrators

Picture yourself coming home from work on a Friday. It is the end of the week and you feel like relaxing in the comforts of your home, only to find it vandalised. The windows are smashed, scribbled graffiti takes over the walls and sheets of toilet paper can be seen wrapped around the entire house. You then remember someone telling you to “go back to where you came from” just this morning, and realise why. Derogatory remarks like this are part of a larger problem known as hate crime. It is a prevalent issue that has gone on for years and still is to this day, despite numerous efforts to eradicate it from society. As the question for its existence until this day remains a puzzle, there are a variety of causes and motivations that drive people to commit hate crimes which include the threatening of personal livelihoods, responding to slights or terrorism and fighting for a religious cause to help us better understand and tackle the problem.

To begin with, people often make stereotypes or preconceived notions about other religions and ethnic groups as it is all part of human nature. We tend to observe how one acts and believe it to be how the rest of its kind does as well. Therefore, it is because of these automatic thoughts and assumptions that threaten people, who then go on the defensive mindset to protect their native land from outsiders. This is clearly reflected in a report by Tavernise and Oppel Jr. (2020) stating that Chinese-Americans suffered from racial discrimination as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. They were physically assaulted and verbally abused all due to the fact that the origin of the virus was indeed China. It simply illustrates the extreme, defensive mechanisms Americans resorted to against the Chinese community who were unfairly assumed to have spread the disease, just to ensure the survival of their livelihoods.

Next, revenge feels overwhelming, especially if executed perfectly. It is once again a part of our character, to strike back against things that do not please us. Others might also refer to it as a means to “even things up” after being victims to small pranks, but hate crimes bring it to the next level. Burke (2017) published in an article that Muslim Americans were subject to countless hate crime cases after the September 11 terrorist attack on the USA. Such is the need for retaliation, people will do whatever it takes to defend their country, even if it means swearing vengeance on the innocent who unfortunately share the same ethnicity as the perpetrators.

Keeping in line with the topic of revenge and terrorism is where people determined to fight for the cause and existence of their religion, can be found. In certain countries like the U.S, people are encouraged to fight for whatever they believe is right, whether right or wrong. This however does not always lead to peaceful protests and petitions for change. The case of a Muslim man who opened fire on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida is a classic example. (Lyons, 2016) He took full advantage of a window of opportunity to vent his fury at the country for the apparent bombings of Syria and Iraq, thus highlighting his devotion to the Islamic religion.

Hate crimes are unlikely to ever go away as they are based off a person’s prejudice towards others. It is something that governments cannot fully control so by knowing the motivations behind these hate crime perpetrators, small steps towards building a society free of prejudice and discrimination must be taken before it is too late.

References

Tavernise, S., & Oppel, R. (2020, March 23). Spit On, Yelled At, Attacked: Chinese-Americans Fear for Their Safety. Retrieved June 18, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/us/chinese-coronavirus-racist-attacks.html

Burke, S., & Hernandez, D. (2017, June 12). The four reasons people commit hate crimes. Retrieved June 18, 2020, from https://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/02/us/who-commits-hate-crimes/index.html

Lyons, K. (2016, June 12). Orlando Pulse club attack: Gunman identified as police investigate motive. Retrieved June 18, 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/12/orlando-shooting-nightclub-pulse-gunman