Reference no: EM133783826
Assignment:
Review below the Macionis (2019) Chapter spotlight entitled Hate Crime Laws: Should We Punish Attitudes as Well as Actions? Read the information provided and answer questions all three questions listed under the "What Do You Think?" section.
On a cool October evening in 1989, nineteen-year-old Todd Mitchell, an African American, was standing with some friends in front of their apartment complex in Kenosha, Wisconsin. They had just seen the film Mississippi Burning and were fuming over a scene that showed a white man beating a young black boy while he knelt in prayer.
"Do you feel hyped up to move on some white people?" asked Mitchell. Minutes later, they saw a young white boy walking toward them on the other side of the street. Mitchell commanded, "There goes a white boy; go get him!" The group swarmed around the youngster, beating him bloody and leaving him on the ground in a coma. The attackers took the boy's tennis shoes as a trophy.
Police soon arrested the teenagers and charged them with the beating. Mitchell went to trial as the ringleader, and the jury found him guilty of aggravated battery motivated by racial hatred. Instead of the usual two-year sentence, Mitchell went to jail for four years. A year later, the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed the case and declared that people who commit crimes motivated by hate can legally receive enhanced sentences.
As this case illustrates, hate crime laws punish a crime more severely if the offender is motivated by bias against some category of people. Supporters make three arguments in favor of hate crime legislation. First, as noted in the text discussion of crime, the offender's intentions are always important in weighing criminal responsibility, so considering hatred an intention is nothing new. Second, victims of hate crimes typically suffer greater injury than victims of crimes with other motives. Third, a crime motivated by racial or other bias is more harmful because it inflames the public mood more than a crime carried out, say, for money.
Critics counter that although some hate crime cases involve hard-core racism, most are impulsive acts by young people. Even more important, critics maintain, hate crime laws are a threat to First Amendment guarantees of free speech. Hate crime laws allow courts to sentence offenders not just for their actions but also for their attitudes. As the Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz cautions, "As much as I hate big
- Do you think crimes motivated by hate are more harmful than those motivated by greed? Why or why not?
- Do you think minorities such as African Americans should be subject to the same hate crime laws as white people? Why or why not?
- Do you favor or oppose hate crime laws? Why?