As we learned in this week’s reading certain criteria has to be met in order for crimes to be reported on the UCR
As we learned in this week’s reading certain criteria has to be met in order for crimes to be reported on the UCR. Focusing on two of those criteria’s is that the crime committed has to be reported to the police, and from there the police have to report that crime to the FBI.
Today’s society is somewhat more accepting of the GLBT community than in the past, but be as it may homosexuality is still frowned upon by the larger half of society. I feel like most individuals that fall under the GLBT community category are somewhat scared of speaking up against hate crimes committed against them; simply, for the fact they feel like nothing will be done due to the negative outlook on homosexuality, and the fear of more retaliation for being homosexual.
Other spin on this subject could be the police hindering the justice system when regarding to GLBT hate crimes. Now, let me throw this out there. In no way am I bashing the police force as a whole, I myself am apart of Law Enforcement which I think gives me even better first-hand knowledge on the situation, and like the text for this week mentioned there are five conditions that influence whether a police officer will accept and formally report a crime. The conditions that stick out to me more when dealing with the GLBT issue is the legal seriousness of the crime. Crimes are more likely to be reported if they are considered a felony rather than a misdemeanor. Even still police still disregard felonies and never make a report which in this case could be because of their opinion on homosexuality. The other condition is the complainant’s status. Although it is almost impossible to fully prove the discrimination police show regarding the person’s race, record, gender, and whatever the case may be discrimination is still a problem regardless of a person’s position. I work with many people who are very discriminating against homosexuals, and even though discrimination is illegal a lot of it still occurs. Maybe a problem with GLBT hate crimes being undercounted is the fact that there is a lot of negative bias when dealing with the homosexual community and some police don’t feel the need to report such crimes to any higher agencies.
