BIO

I’m from Miami, Florida and I’m conducting research and studies in the field of Criminology. I hope that one day all of these fruitful experiences will help me in my journey through law school and beyond. I’m very much interested in playing sports, advocating, leadership, and mentoring others. I am also very passionate about my work over at FSU’s Center for the Advancement of Human Rights. If there’s one thing I’m extremely passionate about, it’s literature. I enjoy reading all kinds of genres. I particulary love poetry. I feel as though my work in research is greatly aided by my reading hobby due to the vocabulary and writing skills I picked up over time. I would love to continue research in Criminology in the future, more specifically related to punishment and punitiveness in the Criminal Justice System.

Hate Crime and Typology: a Comprehensive Database for Federal Hate Crime Offenders

Abstract

Hate crimes are prevalent in the US. They can be violent or non-violent, and they can be directed towards any demographic/ group of people. The research we conduct serves to create a comprehensive database of federal hate crime offenders. The purpose of this is to modernize the data- the last such database is extremely outdated and is no longer representative of current trends. I will discuss how the work will allow researchers from many different fields to draw conclusions such as cause/ effect trends with hate crime and mental illness. I will talk further on how the database will aid the criminal Justice system in targeted detection and prevention for hate crime. One of the main things I will discuss will be the research methodology. We are given a master list of federal hate crime offenders ranging all the way from the early 2000’s to present years. As researchers, we have to choose offenders to code into the database. We have to use the internet and any/ all available sources to find out an array of information about the offender, their crime, the legal proceedings, and the victims. I will also talk about how our findings show that offenders often have previous histories of childhood victimizations or mental health illnesses. Because this is an ongoing project, any concrete conclusions have yet to be found. However, I have noticed a few specific trends while working on these cases. 

Keywords: Hate Crime, Criminology, Crime, Offenders, Typology