Making Room for Hate Crime Legislation in Liberal Societies

Abstract

There is a divide within political and legal theory concerning the justification of hate-crime legislation in liberal states. Opponents of Hate-Crime Legislation have recently argued that enhanced punishment for hate-motivated crimes cannot be justified within political liberal states. More specifically, Heidi Hurd argues that criminal sanction which target character dispositions unfairly target individuals for characteristics not readily under their control. She further argues that a 'character' based approach in criminal law is necessarily illiberal and violates the state's commitment to political neutrality. In the current paper, I attempt to show the difficulties and absurdity that follows from Hurd's characterization of hate-rimes. I aim to show that punishment for undesirable character traits is consistent with western conceptions of criminal law. Upon doing so, I then go on to construct a positive argument for the justifiability of punishing for character traits as well as for the enhanced punishment associated with hate-motivated crimes.

Why a Criminal Prohibition on Sex Selective Abortions Amounts to a Thought Crime

“…Whether hate crime legislation is anomalous in a liberal, criminal legal framework is a staple question in scholarly work in philosophy and criminal legal theory (see, e.g., Al-Hakim 2010;Dillof 1997;Gellman 1995;Hurd 2001;Kahan 2001;Lawrence 2002;Steiker 1999). However, there is no work considering this question in light of a prohibition on sex selective abortions.…”

The legislative context of prejudice motivated victimisation: perceptions of police legitimacy and citizen decisions to report hate crime incidents

“…On the other hand, Al-Hakim (2010) (Gan et al, 2011, p. 674). The authors admit that increased reporting may be a factor, which still constitutes an increase of attention to the issue of hate crime (Gan et al, 2011).…”

A gyűlölet-bűncselekményekkel szembeni fellépés jelentősége és lehetőségei

“…Az egyik nézet szerint a gyűlölet-bűncselekményekkel kapcsolatos szabályozás, úgymond, "kisebbségvédő intézkedés", vagyis kifejezetten egy adott társadalomban hátrányos helyzetű, diszkriminált, nagyfokú előítéletességgel sújtott, avagy tradicionálisan elnyomott csoportokat véd, éppen e helyzet ellensúlyozása érdekében. 171 Tehát a szabályozás a kiszolgáltatottságot igyekszik ellensúlyozni a speciális védelemmel.…”