Hate Crime Policy Differentiation and Correlation to Political Culture
Many political scientists and researchers to a number of policy arenas in the United States ranging from corporal punishment to the quality of urban life have applied Daniel Elazar's concept of political cultures. For a vast majority of these policy programs, a considerable correlation has been found to exist between the region examined and its approach to a specific policy. Elazar focused on three primary political cultures: the Moralist political culture (MPC), the Individual political culture (IPC), and the Traditional political culture (TPC). These cultures have served as a basis for explaining the difference that exist in the political, social, and personal facets of each respective region. These ideas have been consistent throughout the course of this nation's history, existing even in present times. I have chosen to focus on a policy program that has demanded a great deal of attention in more recent times, namely in the past few years: hate crime policy. With m!ore widespread media coverage, hate crimes have become more prevalent and more publicized than ever before. The Benjamin Smith shootings and the murder of Matthew Shepard are only two examples of recent crimes, which have been considered hate crimes t
------------------------------------------------------------------------ In evaluating hate crime policies across all 50 states, it has become clearly evident that political culture makes a difference in what individual states choose to prioritize and how they go about taking action on such issues as bias-motivated behavior. In reviewing recent statistics, Daniel Elazar's work on political culture, in addition to several other authors who have undertaken analyses of hate crime policy in the United States, clear patterns have emerged that, with a few minor exceptions, fall into line with the MPC, IPC, and TPC tendencies as proposed by Elazar. The long-standing political cultures have affected policy-making ever since our country was founded and continue to do so even today. To conclude, my hypotheses, which were based on the materials with which we have been presented throug0out the course, were proven correct. State adopting hate crime policies the earliest and states most likely to have hate crime policies or to initiate them are considered mo! 13. "Map of State Statutes: 1999 Hate Crime Laws." URL: http://www.adl.org/99hatecrime/provisions.html According to Ryken Grattet, Valerie Jenness, and Theodore Curry claim that the importance states give to different types of hate crime policies reflect the history of various post-1960s civil rights movements in the United States. Race, religion, color, and national origin reflect the early legal contest over minorities' status and rights, "thus, there is a more developed history of invoking and then deploying the law to protect and enhance the status of blacks, Jews, and immigrants." This is a very moralist perspective, hence mirroring the very sentiments that invoked change in those areas. The women's movement, gay/lesbian movement, and disability movement reflect a "second wave" of civil right's activism and "identity politics" and sexual orientation, gender, and disability have only recently been recognized by law, these statuses remain less embedded in hate crime law. They are also more heavily contested protected statuses. Once again, these statuses are most likely t!
Some common words found in the essay are:
Ryken Grattet, Klux Klan, Canada Baptist, Furthermore IPC, James Byrd, Elazar MPC, Daniel Elazar's, United Race, Jenness Curry, Enforcement Act, hate crime, hate crimes, crime policy, political culture, hate crime policy, political cultures, law enforcement, sexual orientation, crime policies, hate crime policies, crime legislation, social regulatory, hate crime laws, hate crime legislation, hate crime law,
Approximate Word count = 4170
Approximate Pages = 17 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
