You come home after a long day at work. You can finally sit down and unwind. Grabbing the remote, you sit in your favorite chair and turn the television on, only to be discouraged by what is shown.

People voicing their religious or political views. Chanting. Holding signs that are either for a group or attacking that group. What starts as a peaceful rally to raise awareness for a cause can turn violent.

People can start hurting other people. Yelling racial slurs and telling minorities to "go back home". Putting innocent people in danger. Spewing hate for all to hear. Destroying buildings, homes, cars and workplaces. Makeshift graves everywhere for the people caught in the crossfire. Bullets flying and bombs going off.

Pure chaos.

You may be thinking you are watching a program of how things used to be. When racism was prevalent. Being gay and lesbian was practically an unheard of thing. Some people felt they could make fun of or even hurt a minority just because they wanted to and no one told them otherwise. You might feel like you are back in those times.

You would be wrong.

It is now 2017 in America and these things are still happening. Racism is still experienced. Homophobia is prominent. Anti-immigration groups are very passionate about their cause.

The FBI defines a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.”

We have progressed in monumental ways over the decades. We no longer enslave African Americans. We allow women to have the same rights as men. Our schools accommodate all students regardless of race and ethnicity. We are free to practice any religion. We had our first black president and were very close to having our first female president. Gays and lesbians can legally get married.

But hate crimes are steadily growing. The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program released its 2015 "Hate Crime Statistics Report Report." It is broken down into five categories: Incidents and Offenses, Victims, Offenders, Location Type and Hate Crime by Jurisdiction.

The report about hate crimes says, in 2015, there were 5,800 hate crimes committed. 4,482 of the offenses were against people. Intimidation came in at 41.3 percent, simple assault at 37.8 percent and aggravated assault at 19.7 percent.

2,338 hate crime offenses were categorized as crimes against property. The majority of those crimes — at 72.6 percent — were acts of destruction, damage or vandalism.

Also during 2015, the most reported hate crime — at 31.5 percent — happened in or near homes. There were 5,493 known offenders. Of those, 48.4 percent were white, 24.3 percent were black or African-American and the race was unknown for 16.2 percent.

But why, after all of the progress we made, are there still hate crimes? Why are people still rioting instead of peacefully protesting? Why are Muslims being told to "go home"? What makes a person or a group want to commit a hate crime?

A study done in 1993 by social scientists Jack McDevitt and Jack Levin found there are four types of hate crime offender:

1. Thrill-seeking offenders are usually looking for excitement and drama. There is no real reason behind the crime; they do it because they want the thrill that comes with the crime. The study found that 66 percent of offenders are thrill seekers.

2. Defensive offenders see themselves as defending their country/community/religion/workplace. They attack specific people and say they are just trying to eliminate the threat the victim supposedly poses. 25 percent of offenders are considered defensive.

3. Retaliatory offenders are seeking revenge from a wrong they feel was committed. These wrongs can either be wrongs directly against them or against their country — like terrorism. Eight percent of offenders are retaliatory.

4. Mission offenders are the most dangerous and rarest. They are driven by a radical or religious cause. They are crusaders. Their mission is to start a complete war against rivals. They make hate a career. One percent of offenders are mission motivated.

The American Psychological Association goes into detail about what could be a possible reason for hate crimes and how we can prevent them. They talk about taking our values of inclusion and free speech and attempting to understand minorities.

"Teachers like to talk about the 'teachable moment,'" he says. "We can look at the current situation as a teachable moment, to enlarge our sense of community and our sense of relationship to others," says Ervin Staub, professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts. "Such stretching can both help us heal from the recent tragedy and lead to the kinds of actions that will prevent the ultimate hate crime — terrorism."