Hate Crimes-Prevelance, Prevention, and the Reporting Problem

                                           Any instance where a person is victimized due to their sexual preference is considered a hate crime.  Hate crimes can be incredibly detrimental to a person or group of people for multiple reasons.  One of the biggest issues caused by hate crimes is the effect they have on a victim's self-esteem.  Hate crimes particularly degrade a subgroup of people by focusing on a personal aspect of the victim.  Victims of hate crimes experience two types of stigmas- the enacted stigma, which is the real experience of discrimination, and the felt stigma, which is the feelings of inadequacy that the target group may feel because of their sexual orientation.  The felt stigma has been found to be the more important part of stigmatization.  The way a person feels about themselves because they are different is more powerful than the actual acts of discrimination.  The enacted stigma can often enhance the felt stigma by reinforcing these feelings of insufficiency.  
Another problem with hate crimes is that many times when a one occurs, it may not be reported due to fear of the outcome or difficulty in finding the correct help.  The article The Facts About Violence Against Historically Disadvantaged Persons states that of the 30,000 victims of sexual minority hate crimes in 2006, only 1472 hate crime victims were actually reported.  This can be due to the traumatic experience of reliving the crime incident.  Victims can also be humiliated if the crime’s importance is diminished. Hate crimes are often difficult to classify by law enforcement, which can prevent victims from feeling comfortable with reporting the hate crime. 

Reporting sexual prejudice hate crimes is so important for many reasons.  First of all, if the process is done correctly, it can help the victim feel closure and safety.  Also, reporting a hate crime will increase the chances that the perpetrator is caught.  A study described in the article Articulated Thoughts About Antigay Hate Crimes found that, when compared to a non-hate crime, people who will commit a hate crime are often times more aggressive and more likely to commit future violence.  Removing the criminal from the community will help ensure further safety for everyone.  

So how can society help to improve these poor reporting rates?  Well first of all, having access to an easy, private, and understanding reporting process encourage people to report these instances.  This is especially important in a community such as a college campus.  In addition to this, research has shown that states with strong hate crime laws and institutional policies had a higher number of documented sexual orientation hate crimes (Stotzer, 2010).  However, this is due to the fact that there is simply more reporting, not more crimes.  People deserve to have their rights protected while feeling comfortable and supported, and keeping their private lives private.

       

References:

Image from: Calgary City News Blog. http://www.calgary.ca/cps/Pages/Community-programs-and-resources/Diversity-resources/Hate-and-bias-crimes.aspx

Herek, Gregory. (2013). Sexual Orientation: Science, Education, and Policy. LGB Psychology.  http://www.lgbpsychology.org/

McLeod-Bryant, S., et.al. (2008). The facts about violence against historically disadvantaged persons: What can psychiatrists do about disproportionately high rates of suicide and violence? Psychiatric Times, 25(13), 37-40. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/204584659?accountid=14541

Stotzer, R. L. (2010). Sexual orientation-based hate crimes on campus: The impact of policy on reporting rates. Sexuality Research & Social Policy, 7(3), 147-154. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13178-010-0014-1

Nadine, R. R., & Davison, G. C. (2002). Articulated thoughts about antigay hate crimes. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 26(4), 431-447.  doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1016214632062

Discrimination Identification

Many people know that sexual orientation minorities are discriminated against, but could you recognize this prejudice if it happened to you or someone you know?

The LGBTQ community refers to a group of people who identify themselves as non-heterosexual orientation.  This includes lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, and questioning.  These individuals undergo many forms of discrimination that can vary between different sexual orientations.  Although heterosexuals can be discriminated against as well, it is much more common for sexual minorities to be the victims of prejudice.  One form of discrimination is at the interpersonal level.  This discrimination occurs from one individual or small group against another individual or small group.  One common example of interpersonal sexual orientation discrimination would be not hiring someone because of their sexual orientation.  Discrimination can also occur at the organizational level,which usually occurs when an organization decides to treat one sexual orientation group differently from others.  These can be acts derived from formal OR informal rules sanctioned by the company.  Another form of discrimination occurs on a public macro-level, when laws exclude sexual minorities from rights or privileges given to heterosexuals.  The image below is a depiction of states that ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.  It is very clear that there are many gaps in the protection of all people's rights!

     

In addition to separate levels of discrimination, LGBTQ victims can experience multiple levels of victimization.  First, there is the primary victimization, which is the actual experience of an anti-gay hate crime.  Then there is secondary victimization, which can occur due to the exposure of the person's sexual orientation.  An example of this could be a gay man losing his job because he was the victim of a hate crime which exposed his sexual orientation to his job.  Many government policies do not consider secondary victimization when creating laws against anti-gay hate crimes.  Policies need to be revised to include protection from secondary victimization as well!

References:

Image from: Religious Tolerance, http://www.religioustolerance.org/homstatelaw.htm

Grollman, E. A. (2011). What is Sexual Orientation Discrimination. Kinsey Confidential. 

http://kinseyconfidential.org/sexual-orientation-discrimination-2/

Herek, Gregory. (2012). Bibliography- Selected Abstracts. Rainbow.  http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/faculty_sites/rainbow/HTML/bibabs.html

What is Sexual Prejudice?

“Some say that sexual orientation and gender identity are sensitive issues. I understand. Like many of my generation, I did not grow up talking about these issues. But I learned to speak out because lives are at stake, and because it is our duty under the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to protect the rights of everyone, everywhere.” — UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the Human Rights Council, 7 March 2012

Sexual orientation minorities are one of the greatest groups to be denounced in societal history, and unfortunately, still today.  It is so important that we can see and articulate this form of discrimination in order to relieve society from its ignorance.  With so many terms for describing discrimination against sexual orientation, the words "sexual prejudice" may have no specific meaning to many people.  Sexual prejudice is the advancement of coining terms that portray discrimination towards nonheterosexuals.  This evolution started with the terms homophobia and heterosexism in the 1960's.  Homophobia refers to an aversion to homosexual people, while heterosexism refers to the direct prejudice towards any nonheterosexual persons and draws parallels between this and other prejudices.  The term sexual prejudice helps to fill in the gaps that these concepts hold and encompasses all sexual orientation-based negative attitudes.  While it is not typically the case in today's society, sexual prejudice also includes the idea of negative attitudes towards someone because of a heterosexual orientation.  The term "sexual prejudice" also helped to correct the inaccurate assumptions of the term "homophobia."  As a phobia refers to an irrational fear, homophobia can be defined as an irrational fear of homosexual people.  This is not quite an accurate statement as most people who have "homophobic" tendencies are not scared of the people, but more likely the idea of unwanted sexual advances.  The physiological reactions associated with a phobia are not present in people who feel negatively about nonheterosexual orientations.  All forms of discrimination in this matter are WRONG.

A recent article posted in Psychology Today, The Mike Rice Situation and the Damage of Homophobia, was written by a homosexual professor at Rutgers University.  In response to student abuse by the university's head basketball coach (including verbal abuse and homophobic slurs), Mike Rice brings up some very interesting points, specifically on the issue of authority figures fostering certain unrealistic standards for men.  These attitudes towards masculinity and femininity greatly contribute to keeping sexual prejudice alive and harmful in society today.  Although this scandal was a terrible act, the light could be that it has brought about attention to specific behaviors that actually support sexual prejudice, such as a coach's use of gay prejudice slurs at his team to make them feel pathetic.  Many of these behaviors are considered to be unacceptable and continue to cause outrage to much of society.  This realization that these behaviors are detrimental to people is largely due to a growing communication about sexual orientation prejudice.  The ability to express verbally an idea or belief corresponds with the ability to persuade.  This is why it is so important that every person be educated on this discrimination, aware of the damage it causes to other human beings, and have the background knowledge to be able to talk about it.  Knowledge leads to communication, which leads to persuasion, which leads to change.

References:
Image from: The Genderbread Person,  http://itspronouncedmetrosexual.com/2012/01/the-genderbread-person/

LaSala, M. C. Ph.D. (2013). The Mike Rice Situation and the Damage of Homophobia. Gay and Lesbian Well-Being. Psychology Today.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/gay-and-lesbian-well-being/201304/the-mike-rice-situation-and-the-damage-homophobia

Herek, G. M. (2012). Understanding Homophobia and Heterosexism. Sexual Prejudice.
http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/faculty_sites/rainbow/html/sexual_prejudice.html