Hate Crimes: Criminal Law and Identity Politics Book Review
Minh Dang
Legal Environment of Business
Prof. Steven Smith
Date: April 29, 2013
Book Review. Hate Crimes: Criminal Law and Identity Politics by James Jacobs and Kimberly Potter
Due to a huge number of different groups of people in America, it is unavoidable that bad conducts which are motivated by prejudices between these groups have been existed for a long time. The degree of seriousness of the bad conducts also varies. Some are simply normal prejudices, but some transform into crimes. These crimes are defined as “hate crimes”. The book “Hate Crimes: Criminal Law and Identity Politics” is to “subject hate crime laws to critical examination.”
Chapter 1 “Introduction” brings readers some definitions, including “hate crime”, “hate group” and “identity politics”, and the socio-political consequences of this new crime category. Actually, before mid-1980s, there was no term called “hate crime”. However, with the development of the contemporary society, race, gender, and sexual orientation consciousness increased, which led to this new type of crimes. The term “hate crime”, sometimes called bias crimes, was first used in a popular magazine in an article titled, “The Politics of Hate.” Then in early 1990s, the term was used more widely. The term “identity politics” is a kind of politics in which member of competing groups are related to each other “based on characteristics like race, gender, religion and sexual orientation.” According to identity politics, it is “advantageous to be recognized as disadvantaged and victimized.” New hate crime laws extend the identity politics to crime and punishment, which redefine the crime problem as another area for conflict between races, gender and other groups. The author also distinguishes “hate crime laws” from “hate speech” and “hate group”. Hate crime laws enhance “the punishment of an ordinary crime when the criminal’s motive manifests a legislatively designated prejudice.” Meanwhile, hate speech is a communication that
Legal Environment of Business
Prof. Steven Smith
Date: April 29, 2013
Book Review. Hate Crimes: Criminal Law and Identity Politics by James Jacobs and Kimberly Potter
Due to a huge number of different groups of people in America, it is unavoidable that bad conducts which are motivated by prejudices between these groups have been existed for a long time. The degree of seriousness of the bad conducts also varies. Some are simply normal prejudices, but some transform into crimes. These crimes are defined as “hate crimes”. The book “Hate Crimes: Criminal Law and Identity Politics” is to “subject hate crime laws to critical examination.”
Chapter 1 “Introduction” brings readers some definitions, including “hate crime”, “hate group” and “identity politics”, and the socio-political consequences of this new crime category. Actually, before mid-1980s, there was no term called “hate crime”. However, with the development of the contemporary society, race, gender, and sexual orientation consciousness increased, which led to this new type of crimes. The term “hate crime”, sometimes called bias crimes, was first used in a popular magazine in an article titled, “The Politics of Hate.” Then in early 1990s, the term was used more widely. The term “identity politics” is a kind of politics in which member of competing groups are related to each other “based on characteristics like race, gender, religion and sexual orientation.” According to identity politics, it is “advantageous to be recognized as disadvantaged and victimized.” New hate crime laws extend the identity politics to crime and punishment, which redefine the crime problem as another area for conflict between races, gender and other groups. The author also distinguishes “hate crime laws” from “hate speech” and “hate group”. Hate crime laws enhance “the punishment of an ordinary crime when the criminal’s motive manifests a legislatively designated prejudice.” Meanwhile, hate speech is a communication that