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Hate Crimes: Criminal Law and Identity Politics (Studies in Crime and Public Policy) 1st Edition
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The book contends that hate crime as a socio-legal category represents the elaboration of an identity politics now manifesting itself in many areas of the law. But the attempt to apply the anti-discrimination paradigm to criminal law generates problems and anomalies. For one thing, members of minority groups are frequently hate crime perpetrators. Moreover, the underlying conduct prohibited by hate crime law is already subject to criminal punishment. Jacobs and Potter question whether hate crimes are worse or more serious than similar crimes attributable to other anti-social motivations. They also argue that the effort to single out hate crime for greater punishment is, in effect, an effort to punish some offenders more seriously simply because of their beliefs, opinions, or values, thus implicating the First Amendment.
Advancing a provocative argument in clear and persuasive terms, Jacobs and Potter show how the recriminalization of hate crime has little (if any) value with respect to law enforcement or criminal justice. Indeed, enforcement of such laws may exacerbate intergroup tensions rather than eradicate prejudice.
- ISBN-100195114485
- ISBN-13978-0195114485
- Edition1st
- PublisherOxford University Press
- Publication dateMay 7, 1998
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions6.3 x 1.2 x 5.2 inches
- Print length224 pages
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James B. Jacobs and Kimberly Potter suggest not. They argue that the definitions of "hate crime" are often too vague to be meaningful. They cite the case of a black man who robbed white people simply because he believed they had more money than blacks and who did not abuse whites with racial invective as he committed his crimes, as an example. Jacobs and Potter point out that "whether or not the authors of hate crime legislation meant to cover [such] offenders, these are the individuals who dominate the statistics." They then analyze the statistical data and find no evidence supporting the belief that hate-instigated violence is on the rise; they also find that the majority of reported hate crimes are low-level offenses such as vandalism and "intimidation." Brutal assaults and murders, while they may provide grist for media sensationalists, are rare.
Jacobs and Potter also argue convincingly that the development of hate-crime legislation arises from the identity politics movements which have gained strength since the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Essentially, according to their line of reasoning, claims of the existence of a hate-crime epidemic and laws punishing hate crimes serve two purposes. One, they allow minorities to express outrage at the way they are being treated by society. Two, they allow nonminorities to act as if they understand minorities' pain and reaffirm the uncontroversial belief that prejudice and bigotry are wrong. But crime, the authors suggest, is not simply "a subcategory of the intergroup struggles between races, ethnic groups, religious groups, genders, and people of different sexual orientations." Hate-crime laws may even, they warn, exacerbate perceived differences rather than create harmony.
Hate--or, more accurate, bigotry--is wrong. Crime is also wrong. But Jacobs and Potter make a convincing argument against considering crime tinged with bigotry worse than unadulterated crime. "The enforcement of generic criminal law," they conclude, "is adequate to vindicate the interests of 'hate crime' victims as it is of other crime victims."
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- Publisher : Oxford University Press; 1st edition (May 7, 1998)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 224 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0195114485
- ISBN-13 : 978-0195114485
- Lexile measure : 1610L
- Item Weight : 1.15 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.3 x 1.2 x 5.2 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #4,913,097 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,194 in Criminal Law (Books)
- #3,140 in Criminology (Books)
- #5,415 in Public Policy (Books)
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The statistical material suggests in fact that there has been a decline in prejudice over time and that current criminal laws handle issues of social conflict in an adequate way. The setting up of hate crime units and the passing of laws has achieved little and used scarce resources.
Hate crimes it would appear are an issue that is pushed by parties of the left in the United States. (Perhaps more accurately parties of the not so right). This attack however is not some piece of political rhetoric based on a political position but a clear inditment of poorly worked out social policy.
The only problem with this book is the writing. It's not particularly bad. But it isn't compelling. The organization of each chapter is professorial (one of the authors is a law professor). Segments are pedantically labled, as if they were lecture notes and not a book about a widening legal and societal issue that is intrinsically interesting. The authors end chapters with conclusions that reiterate what we have just read. The writing feels as if the authors dictated it, then lightly edited it.
But the writing weaknesses are only a small impediment. A serious reader, worried about how to deal with crimes committed out of bigotry, will find this book thought-provoking and, at the end, convincing.
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