Hate crimes make up a small percentage of the total reported crimes each year, and though they are mostly small in number, these crimes command a position of high importance within the criminal justice system. This is evidenced by the fact that hate crimes are given harsher sentences than traditional crimes, even when the action of the perpetrator is roughly equivalent. In essence, a hate crime is about the mental state that the perpetrator possesses when he commits the crime. He holds a mental state driven to anger or rage on the basis of hatred of another person. This means that he views his victim as an enemy. Most of the time, hate crimes are perpetrated on the basis of racial bias, as the perpetrator is so driven to anger by the race of the victim that he is unable to control his animus.
Nearly every state has hate crime legislation. In effect, hate crime statutes are enhancements to existing crimes. One might commit a hate-based murder, robbery, assault, and a host of other crimes. The underlying action is a necessary element of hate crimes, too, since it is not illegal to hold animus against another person. It only become a legal problem when a person chooses to act on his actions.
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Society has decided that it views hate crimes in a different light than typical crimes. Even though all violent crimes are horrible, society has placed extra emphasis on those crimes that are motivated by this type of bias. These are crimes that are mostly committed by males, and they have a number of different explanations. While states have tried to make hate crimes more legislation more costly for the perpetrator, these statutes have been unable to completely curb the problem, as hate crimes persist across the country in various forms.
