This article explores the
practical
enforcement of laws that increase criminal penalties for bias-related
crimes.
A review of the literature suggests that penalty-enhancement statutes
are
meeting some of their goals. At the same time, police implementation is
highly variable, prosecutions are rare, and convictions are even rarer.
This article summarizes the practical and legal hurdles to enforcement
of hate crime laws, including issues regarding enforcement by local
police,
difficulties in proving motivation, and controversies surrounding
deterrence
and the larger societal impact of the laws. Because hate crime laws
have
been operationalized with little or no attention to societal power
dynamics
and social inequalities, their paradoxical consequences may include
disproportionate
punishment of minorities whom they were intended to protect. Further,
hate
crime laws shine their spotlight on relatively powerless individuals at
the bottom of the social order, and away from the societal institutions
that promote or condone discriminatory conduct.
Karen Franklin, Ph.D.
