Does Hate Crime Legislation Reduce Hate Crimes and Contribute to Social Change?
To prepare:
• Consider your empathy-bias regarding hate crime legislation.
• Set your empathy-bias aside and consider the effects of having hate crime legislation and prosecution on the occurrence of hate crimes, victim impact, and social change.
• Consider the differences in sentencing for hate crimes.
• Gather scholarly literature, which may include Learning Resources to support the points you plan to make in your discussion post.
Assignment:
• Explain what effects, if any, hate crime legislation, prosecution, and punishment have on:
o The occurrence of hate crimes
o Victim impact
o Social change
• Compare sentencing for hate crimes to sentencing for the same crime that has not been labeled a hate crime.
• Justify your opinion based on scholarly resources.