Recent applications of hate crime statutes have generated fresh criticism this month in newspapers as ideologically diverse as The Wall Street Journal and The Boston Globe. Critics of hate crime statutes argue that such laws, by enhancing sentences for crimes motivated by racial or similar status-based animus, punish offenders for their thoughts.
Critics ask why should a murderer be punished more severely because he kills someone as an expression of racial hatred rather than on the basis of some nonracial motivation? The victim suffers the same harm. However, if you believe that the purpose of criminal punishment is to deter rationally-motivated crime, then you should be in favor of hate crime statutes.
RATIONAL CRIMINAL DETERRENCE
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