SOCI 349 REVIEW FOR EXAM 1 EXAM 1 SCHEDULED FOR JANUARY 31

5 FOR EACH

Potential Essay:
1. Discuss the similarities and differences between hate crime laws and civil rights law. (ch 1)
Similarities:
• Seek to inhibit discriminatory acts that are motivated by race, religion, national origin and
ethnicity.
• Seek to protect the constitutionally protected rights of citizens.
• Provide specific sanctions for behaviors that violate these laws.
• Identify the discriminatory aspect of the actions as central component of the prohibition.
Differences:
• Federal civil rights are applicable when there is a bias motivation to interfere with an individual
engaging in activities that are constitutionally protected.
• Hate Crime statues address the targeting of individuals because of their race, ethnicity, etc,
regardless of the victims’ activities.
• Federal civil rights laws handled by federal courts, state and local hate crime laws handled by
lower courts.

2. Discuss the sources for hate crime data and statistics. (ch 1)
• Official data comes now from two main sources: Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), and National
Victimization Crime Survey (NCVS).
• Clery Act requires schools to publish data on campus crimes, including hate crimes.
• Southern Poverty Law Center publishes several items.
• National Coalition of anti-violence programs
• Asian American Justice Center.

3. Discuss historical hate crime incidents against American Indians. (ch 2)

• Earliest contacts between Europeans and Native Americans as nonviolent and mutually beneficial.
• However, the relationship changed when whites wanted to homestead and take lands in unfair ways.
• As Native Americans resisted white encroachment and interference in their sovereignty.
• Ideology during the 1820s – 1860s was white male domination and terror, exclusion, and suppression
of nonwhites.

4. Discuss historical hate crime incidents against African Americans. (ch 2)

• Commodification of Africans occurred when economic profit was the driving force for settling the new
world.
• And to make this happen, a particular viewpoint of Africans needed to be propagated, one where they
were seen as uncivilized and negative.
• In 1625, being African was seen as being suitable for slavery.
• In 1640, Black codes distinguished Africans from all other groups in America.
• Once slavery was established, it became legally a lifelong and inherited condition.

5. Discuss historical hate crime incidents against Asian Americans. (ch 2)

• Kearneyism and anti-Asian acts used to cast Asian laborers, who were invited to come work on
railroads and who saved money to start businesses, as taking away white jobs.
• Asians were segregated and efforts made to banish them from the US.
• Asian businesses vandalized or destroyed, people were robbed, assaulted, lynched in the 1870s.
• It was so common that newspapers didn’t report it.

6. Discuss KKK activities in the post-civil war era. (Ch 2)

• Klan had 3 distinct period activity: 1866, 1915, 1954.
• Murdered thousands of blacks in the 1866 period.
• 1915 more affluent whites joined – me mbership estimated to be 5 million at a time.
7. Discus the 4 things contributing to the evolution of hate crimes. (ch 2)
• Globalization – Internet makes connections between hate groups within the US and those abroad easy,
also links between US hate groups and middle east terrorists (such as hatred of jews).
• Exploration of the military – groups located near bases to recruit service people, some neo-Nazis and
others are active service personnel; military chain command used to ignore nazi flags in living quarters
hate groups want service personnel for their training, access to weapons, and intelligence; after
Oklahoma City bombing, US military has a zero-tolerance policy for hate groups.
• Youth involvement – target high schoolers via newspaper ads for free music downloads (music is white
power songs); the songs use racial and other slurs against minority groups; advocate the killing of
blacks and gays; multiple distributers of music.
• Potential for Mass Destruction – hate groups stockpile assault rifflers, sarin nerve gas, explosive,
cyanide, and radioactive materials; they provide literature on how to build and use dirty bombs; some
threatened president Obama because he is black.

8. Discuss the social conditions facilitating hate motivated acts. (ch 2)

• Dominate groups with cultural, political, and economic advantages not available to other groups.
• Subordinate groups lacking these resources and having less social standing.
• Mainstream culture that deviates, ignores, or mocks the cultural traditions of minority groups.
• Authorities fail to recognize or adequately address these dynamics.

9. Discuss the points about the growing acceptance of hate ideology. (ch 2)
• Part of some mainstream political platforms and ideology.
• Some extremists run for government office (ex; David Dukes, former grand dragon of KKK. Ran for LA
governor.)
• Tea party movement contains racist, homophobic, and xenophobic ideology (ex; shouting out the n
word at African American Congressmen in 2010)
• Deeply etched in US history after 400 years
• Perpetrator-victim groups largely unchanged.
• Factors motivating hate crimes still exist despite of social norms.

10. Name the components of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. (ch 3)
• Prohibit racial or religious discrimination in public accommodations that affect interstate commerce.
• Prohibit discrimination because of race, color, sex, religion, or national origin by employers or labor
unions.
• Bar voting registration from adopting different standards for which black, black, or other applicants.
• Permit the federal government to halt the flow to public or private programs and that practice

11. Discuss the 5 components of the Anti-Defamation League’s model statute. (ch 3)
• Identifying a hate crime as a 2-tiered criminal act, the base offense and animus toward the victim
because of personal characteristics.
• The enhanced penalty element.
• Institutional vandalism as directed towards groups.
• Availability of civil actions for hate crime victims.
• States collecting and maintaining hate crime data that is reported to law enforcement.

12. The Shepard and Byrd Hate Crimes Act did what? (ch 3)
• This act broadened the ability of federal authorities to prosecute local hate crimes.
• It created a federal hate crime statue.
• Eliminated the requirement of victim participation in federally protected activities.

13. Name 5 of the things that the US Attorney General must certify. (ch 3)
• Has reasonable cause to believe the perceived race, color, religion, etc. was a motivating factor
underlying the alleged conduct of the defendant.
 • Has consulted with state or local laws enforcement officials regarding the prosecution and determined
that.
• The state doesn’t have jurisdiction or doesn’t intend to exercise it.
• The state has asked the federal government to assume jurisdiction.

14. Discuss the GA anti-mask law. (ch 3)

• This law was put into place in 1951 after the violent actions and threats by the KKK.
• The law made it misdemeanors wear to wear a mask as part intimidation

15. Discuss the VA cross burning law. (ch 3)

• Made it illegal to intimidate people by burning a cross on another’s land, highway, or in a public place.
• The law was challenged on the basis of the 1st amendment, but the supreme court clarified the law to
say states may ban cross burning done willfully to evoke fear and to intimidate.
• It can be done if merely a political statement or part of an organization’s rituals.

16. Name the arguments that proponents of hate crime laws make. (ch 3)
• Hate crime laws are necessary because of the corrosive nature of hate crimes.
• There is evidence that hate crimes tend to be more violent and injurious than non-biased violent crimes
• The vast majority of hate crimes go unreported.

17. Discuss the Thompson case. (ch 3)

• A TSA employee was off duty in 2010 when he committed a crime.
• He physically assaulted a bearded, 82-year-old man after leaving a bar.
• He reported said to the victim “you Muslims, go back to your country”

18. Discuss the St. Paul MN Hate Crime Ordinance. (ch 3)

• R.A Viktora and youths burned a cross in a black neighbor’s yard.
• He was charged with a misdemeanor.
• St. Paul MN Hate Crime Ordinance outlawed placing an object, symbol, graffiti, etc. which rouses alarm
or anger in others on the basis of race, color, creed, etc.

19. Discuss the Wisconsin Bias Crime Statute. (ch 3)

• Wisconsin Bias Crime Statute had penalties associated with the conduct of hate crime perpetrators, not
their speech, and was upheld by supreme court.
• Wisconsin vs. Mitchell 1995 case involved teens watching the movie, “Mississippi Burning” who
became angry and beat up a white boy.

20. Discuss the Lenuel Penn case. (ch 2)

• He was an assistant superintendent of education in DC public schools and an Army reservist.
• He was murdered in 1964 near Athens, GA as men pulled up next to his car and fired shots at it.
• 6 KKK members were convicted under the 1946 civil rights act, after local jury let them go.

21. Why did hate crime laws come into being? (ch 1)
• As the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s gained momentum, it ignited a resurgence of the
KKK and other discriminating groups.
• The civil rights act of 1964 prohibited state and municipal governments from denying access to public
facilities on the grounds of race, religion, gender, or ethnicity.
•

22. Discuss how hate speech is not a hate crime. (ch 1)

•

23. Discuss hate crimes in the workplace. (ch 1)

• More common when interacting with a new minority, but not much is known.
 • For example, in the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing – it was terrorism, but federal employees were
targeted as a group.
• For example, supermarket chain in Colorado was sued because drawings depicting lynching’s were
posted and Hispanics referred to as “Borderer jumpers”

Potential Short Answer:

1. Hate crime (ch 1)
• Hate Crimes (or Bias Crimes) refers to those offenses that are committed due to perpetrators
prejudiced or hostile attitudes towards a particular social group represented by the victim.

2. Components of hate crime (ch 1)

• The predicate or base offense – such as harassment, intimidation, aggravated assault, malicious
damage, arson, or murder.
• Evidence that the perpetrators actions are motivated by prejudice or animus against the group
represented by the victim.

3. Hate speech (ch 1)

• Abusive or threatening speech or writing that expresses prejudice on the basis of ethnicity, religion,
sexual orientation, or similar grounds.

4. Where hate crimes are more likely to occur (ch 1)

• Near residence

5. US v. Samar case (ch 1)

• Used antisemitic slurs; threatened 2 students and threatened to kill 1 in a MA college. He entered a
plea agreement.

6. US v. Little case (ch 1)

• Little ignited a pipe bomb in a black student’s dorm room and put a threatening racist note on the door
of another student’s dorm in UT. Little was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment, fined $12000, and
made him pay restitution.

7. How hate crime is different from conventional crime (ch 1)

• Perpetrators intent = to evoke fear and get victim to restrict activities.
• Impact on victim = since victims can’t change characteristics, it cuts to their core being.
• Impact on victims’ community = invoke fear in them, as a victim is a representative of them.

8. 3 reasons why hate crime not considered a crime in the past (ch 2)
• Absence or limited constitutional or statutory protections afforded to victims.

9. Lynch law (ch 2)

• Lynch law is unlawful killing of a person thought to have violated important social norms and/or the law.
• The punishment of presumed crimes usually by death without due process of the law.

10. Dred Scott v. Sanford case (ch 2)

• Said those of African descent could never be US citizens.

11. Plessy v. Ferguson case (ch 2)

• Established separate but equal public facilities.

12. Brown v. Board of Education case (ch 2)

• Said segregation violated the 14th amendment of the constitution.

13. Southern Manifesto (ch 2)

 • Signed by senators and congressman from 11 Southern States, vowing to resist integration by any
lawful means.

14. Beauharnais v. IL case (ch 3)

• A white man, Beauharnais, passed out anti-black literature and was prosecuted. He appealed his
conviction to the supreme court and lost.

15. Group libel (ch 3)

• Is the defamation of a group of individuals based on race, religion, etc.

16. Capeheart Anti-lynching bill (ch 3)

• Participation in a mob or riotous assemblage is punishable with a fine of $500-$1000 and
imprisonment for 30 days to 1 year.

17. 13th Amendment (ch 3)

• Abolished slavery (1865); slavery synonymous for being black.

18. 14th Amendment (ch 3)

• (1868) established national citizenship for all persons born or naturalized in the US (including newly
freed blacks) and ensured their constitutional protections.

19. 15th Amendment (ch 3)

• (1870) The right of citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the US or any state.

20. 1866 Civil Rights Act (ch 3)

• Provided a penalty of a fine or incarceration to anyone who sought to interfere with blacks exercising
their rights as articulated in the law.

21. 1870 Force Act (ch 3)

• (also known as the Ku Klux Klan act of 1871) provided civil and criminal sanctions for those were guilty
of interfering with or depriving citizens (including blacks) of their constitutional rights (including voting).

22. 1875 Civil Rights Act (ch 3)

• Provided public accommodations for African Americans.

23. 1957 Civil Rights Act (ch 3)

• Provided the US attorney general with the authority to seek a federal court injuction against those trying
to stop blacks from voting.

24. 1968 Civil Rights Act (ch 3)

• Adding criminal penalities

25. Why hate crimes are complex phenomenon (ch 1)

• Perpetrators perception about victim may be right or wrong
• Intent of the perp

26. Hate crimes serve as what in society (ch 1)

• Reminder of where we came from.
• “throwbacks to the past”

27. Problem with the term “bias crime” (ch 1)

• Doesn’t convey the nature of it.

28. Problem with the term “hate crime” (ch 1)

• May over-breach because it infers motives of perpetuating, which may be impulsive.
29. Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990 (ch 1)
• It requires the UCR to collect and publish data on hate crimes by race, ethnicity, religion, and sexual
orientation.

30. Public views about hate crimes (ch 1)

• They are unnecessary because we already have laws against crimes.

31. arguments that opponents of hate crime laws make (ch 3)

• Hate crime laws infringe upon freedom of speech.
• Hate crime laws infringe upon freedom of religion.

32. 4 points made about state hate crime laws (ch 3)

• Some differ on definitions
• Some use the civil rights approach.

33. hate crimes at night are more likely to be what? (ch 1)

• violent

34. when are children more likely to be hate crime victims? (ch 1)
• daytime