E-Book Overview
Bias crimes are a scourge on our society. Is there a more terrifying image in the mind's eye than that of the burning cross? Punishing Hate examines the nature of bias-motivated violence and provides a foundation for understanding bias crimes and their treatment under the U.S. legal system. In this tightly argued book, Frederick Lawrence poses the question: Should bias crimes be punished more harshly than similar crimes that are not motivated by bias? He answers strongly in the affirmative, as do a great many scholars and citizens, but he is the first to provide a solid theoretical grounding for this intuitive agreement, and a detailed model for a bias crimes statute based on the theory. The book also acts as a strong corrective to recent claims that concern about hate crimes is overblown. A former prosecutor, Lawrence argues that the enhanced punishment of bias crimes, with a substantial federal law enforcement role, is not only permitted by doctrines of criminal and constitutional law but also mandated by our societal commitment to equality. Drawing upon a wide variety of sources, from law and criminology, to sociology and social psychology, to today's news, Punishing Hate will have a lasting impact on the contentious debate over treatment of bias crimes in America.
E-Book Content
P U N I S H I N G H AT E
Frederick M. Lawrence
Punishing Hate Bias Crimes under American Law
H A RVA R D U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England
Copyright © 1999 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Third printing, 2002 First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 2002 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lawrence, Frederick M. Punishing hate : bias crimes under American law / Frederick M. Lawrence. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-674-73845-4 (cloth) ISBN 0-674-00972-X (pbk.) 1. Hate crimes—United States. I. Title. KF9345.L39 1999 345.73⬘025—dc21 98-49780
For Joseph F. Lawrence Beatrice D. Lawrence the late Ben Kurtzman Sally Kurtzman Gold the late Jack Gold who taught me that the end of bigotry begins not with the punishment of hate, but with the practice of love.
Contents
Contents
Contents
Preface
ix
Introduction: The Challenges of Punishing Hate
1
1.
What Is a Bias Crime?
2.
How Are Bias Crimes Different?
3.
Why Are Bias Crimes Worse?
4.
Who Is Guilty of a Bias Crime?
5.
Are Bias Crime Laws Constitutional?
6.
What Is the Federal Role in Prosecuting Bias Crimes?
7.
Why Punish Hate?
9 29
45 64 80 110
161
Appendixes
A.
State Bias Crime Laws
B.
Sample Discriminatory Selection Statutes
C.
Sample Racial Animus Statutes
D.
Sample “Because of” Statutes
E.
Sample “Because of” Statutes with Additional Element of Maliciousness 193
F.
Sample Institutional Vandalism Statutes
G.
Other Relevant Statutes
179
195
190
191 192
194
viii
Contents
Historical Appendix Notes
198
205
Bibliographical Essay Acknowledgments Index
265
253
261
Preface
Preface
Preface
My interest in understanding and combating racism and other forms of bigotry goes back before my career at Boston University, to my stint as an Assistant United States Attorney in New York, and indeed before that as well. I share with many a deeply felt intuition that bias crimes are in some sense worse than