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HATE CRIMESSUMMER, 2000
PCJCR 3956
INTRODUCTION
PA. Federal LegislationApril 25, 20000 -BHate Crime legislation sought toBExpand current laws to include
(a) sexual orientationP (b) Gender and disability P
PCurrent legislation allows for prosecution of crimes motivated byPvictim's race, religion, color or national origin.
B(2) Majority of hate crimes will continue to be prosecuted by state B
Band local governments.
B
B(a) argued for broader federal laws allowing federal government to assist state and local governments in their prosecutions.
WHAT IS HATE CRIME?AMBIGUOUS
PDifficulty in determining:(1) what is meant by prejudice(2) which prejudices qualify for inclusion under hate crime(3) which crimes of prejudice become hate crimes(4) link between the perpetrator's prejudice and the perpetrator's criminal conduct
COMPLEXITY OF AHATE CRIME@Correlation to Prejudice
PCriminal conduct motivated by prejudiceConcept held by all for against somethingBIndividuals, groups, foods, countriesBRooted in experiences, fantasies, irrationalityBTraditional, learned behavior
PREJUDICE JUSTIFICATION
Pfactually correct observationsAnti-black vs pro-whiteBiases against rich, poor drunks, drug addicts BAbove not necessarily transformed ordinary crime into hate crime
PRacial, religious and gender prejudices officially denounced in our lawsPHate crimes constitute "next generation" effortPFederal and state legislatures choose which prejudices to officially condemnSome states sexual orientation included
IMPACT OF RACIAL/ETHNIC/RELIGIOUS
PREJUDICE
POn average, blacks have worse jobs, income, and housing than white people? Yes? No?PBlack respondent 44 percent attributed situation to discriminationPWhite respondents 21 percent of white respondents chose discrimination as causePP
PREJUDICE AGAINST WOMENDo All Men Hate Women?
PAdam Jukes: Author of Why Men Hate WomenYes, they doMen harbor unconscious prejudice against women
P"The hatred of women may be, in most cases, a deeply repressed fact of the male character. At one extreme is the rapist or the sexual murderer, at the other extreme is the apparently ordinary man who does not rape or murder, and feels mild and hidden...contempt for women, or expresses it only in the privacy of his own home....."
PNational Conference of Christian and Jews(now National Conference)55 percent of survey's respondents believe that CatholicsB"want to impose their own ideas of morality on the larger society."Concluded that this was proof of widespread anti- Catholic prejudice
PREVALENCE OF HATE CRIMES
Are Hate Crimes Serious?
PJanuary 1996 Hate Crimes Statistics revealed 7,400 hate crimes committedNumber reported does not include those not reportedAtty. Janet Reno: "hate crimes have long gone under reported"Higher incidence if crimes against sexual orientation included
HISTORY OF TOLERANCE
VIDEO
PEquality declared in Constitution belonged to white men, not men of other racesPHate taught to next generation Each generation teaches the next who the enemy isConcept of savages regarding the IndiansSystematic injustices toward African-Americans continued after slavery
P1913 Campaign by Georgians to convict Leo Frank for crime he didn't commitPScapegoating JewsPAttitudes regarding immigrants in 20th and 21st century similar to that expressed 150 years ago.Group hatred often originates from economic insecurityCultural intolerance prevalent
VARIABLE EXHIBITIONS OF HATE
Often Based on Racial Prejudice
PBlack prejudice and hatred of whites, especially Jews documented (remember film)Louis Farrakhann best known racist and anti-Semitic black leader
HATE SPEECH AND HATE CRIME ACTS
PJames Byrd and Matthew Shepard (1998)P1999 Columbine High School ShootingsP1999 4th of July weekend racially motivated killings around Illinois and IndianaP August 1999 LA daycare shooting spree by Buford Furrow. PP
PRacially motivated shooting spree by a black man in Wilkinsburg, PA.P Left two dead and three wounded, Brought to light the fact that hate crimes do not discriminate.
INCREASE IN HATE CRIMES
Pthe trend is growing, Pperpetrators are getting bolder. PKu Klux Klan 1994 AnnouncementDecember 1994 Macedonia Baptist Church in Bloomington, S.C.Church burned six months laterArrest of one revealed he was card carrying member of KKK
R.A.V v CITY OF ST. PAUL505 U.S. 377
PJune 21, 1990 several teenagers made a crude cross by taping together broken chair legs. The cross was then placed inside the fenced yard of a black family and burned. The family lived across the street from one of the teenagers (who was the petitioner in the case). Petitioner was charged under the St. Paul Bias-Motivated Crime Ordinance
MINN. LEGIS. CODE 292.02
PWhoever places on public or private property a symbol, objects appellation, characterizations or graffiti, including, but not limited to, a burning cross or Nazi swastika, which one knows or has reasonable grounds to know arouses anger, alarm or resentment in others on the basis of race, color, creed, religion or gender commits disorderly conduct and shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
PDefendant appealed his conviction arguing that the law violated his right to free speech. District court agreed with defendant struck down the law on two grounds:P1 Ordinance was overboard and vague2. First Amendment prevented St. Paul from banning cross as a form of expression.
State appealed to Minnesota Supreme Court
State Supreme Court upheld law; Ruled:BCross burning not a form of speech deserving First Amendment protectionBBLaw was not overly broadBApplies only to "fighting words"B
B"Fighting words" words which would provoke a reasonable person to violence
U.S. Supreme Court
June 22, 1992
PFirst rule on constitutionality of hate crime statutesPReversed decision of Minnesota Supreme CourtPUnanimously agreed that law was too broadPUnconstitutional prohibits permitted speech based on subjects of the speechP
SUPREME COURT RULING
R.A.V. v St. Paul
PGeneral Rule: First Amendment prevents government from proscribing speech, expressive conductPCourt disagreed regarding why ordinance should be struck downScalia: government cannot regulate fighting words on basis of viewpoint
Justice White
POrdinance fatally overboardPCriminalizes unprotected expressionCriminalizes expression protected by the First Amendment
Justice Stevens
Significant that statute regulates only fighting wordsFighting WordsBDetermined in part by contentBDirected at individuals Bso as to "by their utterance inflict injury"BAction crude form of physical intimidationMessage of racial hostility does not automatically endow it with complete constitutional protection
WISCONSIN v TODD MITCHELL
508 U.S. 476
PMitchell, a black youth was convicted of beating a white victimPRacially motivated aggravated battery normally carried a two-year maximum sentencePSentence increased because jury found that Mitchell intentionally selected victim because of raceSentence increased to seven years by Wisconsin StatuteP
MITCHELL CONTD.
PMitchell sentenced to four years' imprisonmentPState Supreme Court invalidated sentence- enhancement schemePStatute posed same overboard threat to speech as R.A.V.P
MITCHELL CONTD.
PU.S. Supreme Court reversedMitchell aimed at violent conduct unprotected by First AmendmentSingles out conduct thought to inflict greater individual and societal harmPenallty enhancement approach did not violate the First AmendmentBPunished conduct, not speech
SUPPORT OF INCREASE
Hate Speech: Constitutional Violation?
PRacial inferiority planted as an idea that may have some validityPStereotypesRejected but remains embedded in mind
PSpeech infringing on public order unprotected constitutional areaPBomb threats, incitements to riot,"fighting words", and obscene phone calls not protected by first amendmentBClose to category of racist speechB
PExisting law insults which bring men to blows subject to first amendment exceptionBRacist speech seen as part of ordinary jostlingBTolerance/acceptingBEffect of dehumanizing racist language often flight rather than fightB
HATE CRIMES INCREASING?
Anti-Semitism
PHoaxes?Octobeer 1992 actionsDecember 1992(Rabbi Shaya Apteer,Semitic slurs,Joseph FredrickCrown Heights activitiesVandalism in Boroooough Park of New YorkFires in Hartford Connecticut
POLITICAL INCLUSION
PRepublican: Rich Bond: "They are not America"PPDemocrat Jerry Brown statements, Vice- President QuaylePPPat Buchanan: religious war
CURRENT LEGISLATION
PSince 1990, there have been several legislative moves addressing hate Pcrimes:PThe Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990PViolence Against Women Act of 1994PHate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement ActPChurch Arsons Prevention Act of 1996P
HATE CRIMES PREVENTION ACT OF 1999
Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 1999
PSentencing: PWhoever, willfully causes bodily injury to any person or,Pattempts to cause bodily injury to any person, Pbecause of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin of any personBP
PThe Violence Against Women Act of 1998PHate Crimes Prevention Act of 1999PIn addition, 42 states have hate crimes laws in effect, 21 of which Pinclude legislation against acts of violence based on sexual orientation.P
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