Hate Language and Hate Crimes Legislation

Introduction

Hate crime legislation takes into consideration the factor of the crime victim being targeted specifically because he or she is a member of a protected group in addition to the actual criminal act against him or her. Hence, the victim has been singled out in a way that sends a message to other members of the group based on the hatred of or prejudice against the group.

Definitions

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines a hate crime as a criminal offense committed against a person, property, or a group that is motivated in whole or in part by the offender's bias against a race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, or sexual orientation. This definition forms the basis of the Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990. However, the FBI has no federal jurisdiction to investigate hate crimes in which the motivation is sexual orientation and can only investigate crimes based on disability bias as it relates to housing rights (Perry, 57). The FBI's involvement in civil rights investigations is rooted in the 1964 Civil Rights Act, a response to the need to investigate and prosecute crimes against those working for equal rights for Black Americans.

Discussion

Although the basic premise of bias is the same, state and federal hate crime legislation differs in terms of which groups are included as protected classes and under what circumstances. The federal hate crime law, passed in 1969, for instance, covers only race, color, religion, and national origin and applies only if the crime occurs when the victim is attending public school or is at work or participating in one of four federally protected activities (18 USC § 245). Individual state laws vary widely (McDevitt, 30).

Pros and Cons of Hate Crime Legislation

People who oppose hate crime legislation argue that the crimes to which it applies to are already illegal under existing law. Opponents also tend to argue that a crime is a crime, and hate crime victims should not be accorded special treatment, since all crime victims suffer. However, hate crimes apply to particularly vulnerable groups, groups that have been targeted in the past and are in need of extra protection. As “message crimes,” the sentence enhancements of hate crime legislation send a warning to perpetrators that singling out these group members is unacceptable. Perpetrators of bias crimes choose to commit these acts precisely because of the characteristics of their particular targets (Levin, 62). In that case, the penalty speaks specifically to the offenders' motivations, a factor that is taken into account in other cases, such as the differing degrees of a murder conviction.

Some feel that hate crime legislation grants special rights to protected groups or is politically motivated to grant equal treatment to these groups in society. Hate crimes are perpetrated by individuals who have underlying fears of others who are different. These crimes are often attempts to prevent the equal rights of other citizens. In that sense, the legislation does work to contribute to the social and political equality of all people ...