Crime And Disorder Act 1998

Within the legal framework of hate crimes it is important to be familiar with the laws that regulate its status. Over the past twenty to thirty years hate crimes laws saw an exponential increase with a number of laws being introduced which adhere to the principle that crimes motivated by hatred or prejudice towards particular features of the victim’s identity should be treated differently from ‘ordinary’ crimes. Perhaps one of the most recognisable and most significant piece of legislation is the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. Within this act if somebody commits one of the many offences on the list (see Table 1.1) and in turn demonstrates, or was motivated by, hostility on the grounds of race, then that offences becomes a separate ‘aggravated’
The aggravated offences cover race and religion only, although a Law Commission consultation during 2013’14 considered the rationale for extending this approach to cases where hostility is based on sexual orientation, disability and transgender identity”.
Currently, the latter forms of targeted hostility mentioned are at present covered by what is commonly referred to as ‘enhanced sentencing provisions’ as stated by Duggan (2014), this is an important piece of legislation as it essentially mirrors the provisions in Section 145 and 146 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and acts to provide similar provisions to protect Transgender victims of hate crime. Effectively this act authorises courts and governing bodies to impose enhanced sentencing for offences directed towards the victim’s sexual orientation, disability or transgender identity. On the other hand, although the act falls short of creating specific offences for these strands in the same way that the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 does for offences relating to religion and race, it does ensure that the expression of the prejudice on the grounds of sexual orientation, disability and transgender identity is recognised as part of the package of legal protection against hate