Monday, March 20, 2017

Why do we penalize "hate" crimes?

A recent incident of a racially motivated shooting brought out an online comment questioning the logic of "hate crime" laws.

My response:

I think you are missing the point. "Hate" crimes are not defined by somw quality of the victim. They are defined by the motives of the perpetrator. We have always taken motive into account in determining the consequences of criminal acts. The wide range of penalties for killing a person are an obvious example.

When you say "All live should have the same importance ...", you are expressing a lovely ideal. I only wish that it were true, both in the law and in people's actual behavior. Sadly, it isn't. And we can only move society toward that lovely ideal by educating people. Teaching people that hatred directed toward those who are different from us (in race, religion, economic class, etc) is socially and legally unacceptable.

No comments:

Post a Comment