Hate_Crime

A highly charged political issue within the United States.

Loosely defined, a hate crime is a crime commited to someone

or someone's property because the criminal has a bias/hatred

of the gender/race/sexual orientation of the victim.

Recent U.S. legislation has defined a number of crimes and circumstances under which they may be committed such that, typically, hate crimes carry longer penalties/jail terms

than the same crime prosecuted under normal criminal statutes.

Those who are opposed to hate crime legislation argue that such legislation punishes ideas, which is not permissible under the strong protections given by the First Amendment. If assault carries a 5 year sentence, but a hate-crime assault carries a 10 year sentence, then is the extra 5 years a penalty for hating?

Conversely, hate crime legislation proponents have held that hatred to the point of violence is a societal problem of sufficient scope and stubbornness to have resisted hundreds of years of efforts by legislators and law enforcement to secure the safety of "hated" persons in society. Supporters reason that one who can be moved to violence by hatred of a class of people presents greater danger to society than one who merely hates a single individual for cause. They posit that if merely punishing the crime is an inadequate deterrent, then hopefully additional punishment may serve as a disincentive to act criminally because of a hatred of one's fellow man.

The state of a person's mind has always been important in determining the fact or seriousness of a crime. "Mens rea" (guilty mind) is a required finding in order to obtain conviction on most felonies. If one plotted a murder, he could be found guilty in the first degree. If He acted in passion and without forethought, it would be re-classified as second-degree or simple murder, with concomitant reduction in penalty. If the act resulting in death were merely careless or inattentive, negligent homicide or manslaughter may be the finding. Similarly with drugs; unlawful posession of a controlled substance is one level of crime. Possession with intent to sell is more serious. Hate crime legislation takes this a step further, punishing not only malice but more severely punishing unreasoning blanket hatred.

Many people mistakenly think that hate crimes are commited

against one group of people exclusively. Hate crimes have

been prosecuted against all races/genders/sexual orientations.

One of the primary difficulties in dealing with hate crimes is that of

determing when a crime is a hate crime and when it is not.

Usually, this determination is done based on a background

investigation of the accused person and/or eyewitness reports

of the crime. In some cases, circumstantial evidence

shows the intent of the accused (e.g., handwritten journals

describing the hatred and descriptions/plans of crimes to be

commited against the hated group). In other cases,

classifying a crime as a hate crime is a matter of judgement

of the law enforcement and prosecuting attorney.

Note that a 'hate crime' statute may be much harder to

get a conviction under than a normal criminal statue. This may

affect whether or not the prosecuting attorney pursues prosecution under the 'hate crime' statute.

Another difficult issue is that a crime will get much more

newsmedia attention/time if it is called a 'hate crime'.

This may sometimes be abused if a news gathering orginization

wants to sell more newspapers by calling a crime a 'hate crime'

before the crime is established/prosecuted as a 'hate crime'.

A generic example of a hate crime would be a criminal that

steals money only from females because the criminal hates

females.

The Southern Poverty Law Ceter (click here for external website) does amazing stuff for the past and future victims of Hate Crime