Criminal Justice

1- Our Bachman text covered how our current laws define hate/bias crimes as targeting a victim due to race, ethnicity, disability, or sexual orientation. Today, nearly every state and federal government has laws that require sentencing enhancements for offenders who commit crimes motivated by hate.

Please respond to the following:

1- What are the positive aspects of hate crimes legislation? What are the possible negative aspects?

2- Is the current legislation satisfactory? What are the advantages and disadvantages of expanding it?

3- While legislation is important, what else can we do as individuals, as families, in our communities, and as a society to respond to these crimes, and lessen (or prevent) these crimes from happening?

4- For the above please do not include personal opinions without evidence. Please remain in the third person and do not begin sentences with “I personally believe” or “I believe”. .

ANSWER

Legislation on Hate Crime

Positive and Negative Aspects of Hate Crime Legislation

Hate crimes usually result from us versus them perception where people view others as lesser humans and not deserving of the privileges of life (Baron, 2017). Hate crimes are mostly committed gains minorities such as people of color and people of different sexual orientations. Hate crime legislation is essential because it helps prevent crimes against others and also helps perpetuate equality. Without the hate crime legislation, many people would go around bullying people who are different from them, and those they feel are not deserving. Hate crime laws are important and have a positive impact because they hold accountable people who commit hate crimes (Baron, 2017). The fact that they are held accountable reduces the number of riots protesting the crimes and also prevents the families and friends of those targeted by the hate crime from revenging. Hate crime legislation helps maintain order within the country and holds back people from committing a hate crime.

The legislation, however, has its negative aspects. Distinguishing hate crimes and other types of crimes can be challenging because the laws do not fully fulfill their intended purposes. The main aim of hate crime laws is to promote stability and equality. These laws, however, pits protected and unprotected groups against each other (Alongi, 2017). The laws make it seem that some members of some groups are more deserving of legal protection than others which brings about conflict between the groups instead of achieving the intended purpose, which is to bring stability and equality. The legislation might also create reverse discrimination bringing about other issues. Issues such as an offender getting less serious punishment for committing crimes against a person not in the protected group.

Advantages and disadvantages of expanding the Laws

The laws that are in place are not satisfactory in that they have loopholes when it comes to the people they are protecting. As earlier stated, hate crime laws are supposed to bring equality and peace, but sometimes they perpetuate the opposite as the groups protected by the laws find themselves fighting against those not protected(MacDougall & Williams, 2017). The laws can sometimes bring about a level of discrimination against the groups that are not protected. The laws also do not work well as sometimes it is difficult to differentiate between hate crimes and those that are not hate crimes. In some States, they do not have hate crime laws making it hard to prosecute them.

Expanding the laws will have its negatives and positives. The positives of expanding the laws are that the laws will protect minorities who are mostly targeted by hate crimes. It will help make them feel safer. The disadvantage of expanding the hate crime laws is that it will not address the problem of racism and the crimes against minorities. Despite there being laws, the hare crimes have been increasing over the years, especially with the availability of social media platforms that give the groups spaces to carry out and plan their attacks (Alongi, 2017).

As a community, people should teach their children about love. Hate crimes usually happen as a result of hatred between communities and the feeling that a certain group is causing the socio-economic strain in the country. It is important to educate people on the importance of treating all human beings as equal despite their race, religion, or sexuality. People who commit hate crimes are mostly those who are not taught the importance of treating others with respect. Teaching children to respect each other will raise a generation of people who do not see the differences in ethnicity or race, and this will help prevent hate crimes.

References

Alongi, B. (2017). The Negative Ramification of Hate Crime Legislation. Pace Law Review, 37(1).

Baron, M. (2016). Hate crime legislation reconsidered. Metaphilosophy, 47(4-5), 504-523.

MacDougall, M. J., & Williams, K. D. (2017). The federal death penalty scheme is not a model for state reform of capital punishment laws. Am. UL Rev., 67, 1647.