The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines a hate crime as a regular crime that contains an element of bias, such as vandalism, arson, and murder, arson. Hate crimes are any illegal behavior that is motivated by prejudice toward any of the social groupings that were named above or any of their offshoots. Nevertheless, hate crimes are not the same thing as hatred in and of itself. There is a legal provision that is known as a hate crime statute, and the purpose of this statute is to discourage acts of violence that are motivated by hatred. There is a significant difference between laws that prosecute hate crimes and those that punish hate speech. When laws are passed that make it illegal to commit acts of hatred, the penalties that are linked with behaviors that are already outlawed by other laws become more severe. Laws that prohibit hate speech, on the other hand, are designed to specifically target a certain kind of social communication. The paper includes an analysis of bullying as a hate crime which will focus ion Columbie High School/
Scope of The Problem
Hate crimes are federal offenses that are perpetrated with hateful intent against an individual on the basis of their race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or handicap. Hate crimes are conducted with the intent to cause harm to the individual. When prejudice is directed at a person because of their disability, it can lead to actions of hostility being committed against that person (Weis, 2022). It is possible that people who have disabilities are at a greater risk of being victims of offensive acts motivated by hatred. There is a possibility that any individual could find himself in this predicament.
People on all sides of the school community, including teachers, students, and even strangers, can be involved in a school shooting. A school shooting may include firearm-related activity in addition to one or more bodies and injuries. School shootings can also cause serious injury or even death. Contrarily, there are a plethora of additional perspectives on school shootings that can be expressed. Because there is no hard and fast rule about how long certain actions are acceptable, the term bullying can apply to many different types of mistreatments. By the same token, there is a vast range of actions and behaviors that fall under the umbrella category of bullying. This implies that bullying is a likely contributing factor among the other factors that lead to the incidence of shootings.
There were two adolescents who were responsible for the tragedy that occurred at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999 (Mears et al., 2017). Up until the moment that they took their own lives, they were responsible for the injuries of nearly twenty others and the deaths of thirteen more, including themselves. A total of one hundred thirteen people lost their lives. Bullying is said to have played a significant role in the children’s decision to carry out the attack, which occurred at an American school and culminated in one of the most terrible shooting sprees that has ever been witnessed at their institution. Bullying was usually deemed to be the most likely reason for the children’s behavior, despite the fact that other factors such as violent video games, gothic literature, and music were also recognized as key influences.
References
Mears, D. P., Moon, M. M., & Thielo, A. J. (2017). Columbine revisited: Myths and realities about the bullying–school shootings connection. Victims & Offenders, 12(6), 939-955. https://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/islandora/object/fsu%3A639840/datastream/PDF/view
Weis, K. (2022, August 31). Columbine high school student bullied for years through fake Safe2Tell reports. CBS News – Breaking news, 24/7 live streaming news & top stories. https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/columbine-high-school-student-bullied-fake-safe2tell-reports/
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