NCJ Number
181058
Journal
New York University Law Review Volume: 73 Issue: 2 Dated: May 1998 Pages: 564-620
Editor(s)
Jonathan Pickhardt
Date Published
1998
Length
57 pages
Annotation
Hate crime, used as a means of maintaining dominant power relationships, is defined as an act of violence motivated by animosity toward persons and groups because of race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or age.
Abstract
In analyzing hate crime and the movement against hate crime, the author argues the increased amount of police, legislative, judicial, scholarly, and community-level attention focused on hate crime in less than two decades is the result of an emerging social movement against hate crime. The rise of the anti-hate crime movement is attributed to civil and victim rights developments that have created collective beliefs, structural resources, and political opportunities. Most of the legal literature on hate crime has focused on hate crime laws, but such laws represent only one aspect of the larger societal response that has included government commissions, police and prosecutorial reform efforts, and social service provisions. Government adoption of anti-hate measures reflects the fact that such measures fit easily into the values of a criminal justice system that is weighted against hate crime victims and their communities. Narrative accounts are used to illustrate some of the problems associated with how hate crime laws and policies are being implemented. The author concludes the anti-hate crime movement is failing to achieve its central goal of systemic transformation within the criminal justice system. 311 footnotes