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15 J. Contemp. Crim. Just. 3 (1999)

handle is hein.journals/jccj15 and id is 1 raw text is: EDITORIAL COMMENT Relatively few people believe that making more hate crime laws will stop hate crime. Then, one might ask, why enact hate crime laws? Hate crime has existed throughout world history and more than likely will continue to exist in the future. Because the act committed in a hate crime is already a crime (such as assault or vandalism), then why create new sanc- tions, policies, and procedures to deal with these violations? These are ques- tions being asked in the legal, academic, and community realms. With recent events such as James Byrd, an African American man who was dragged to death behind a truck in Jasper, Texas, because of his race, and Mat- thew Shepherd, brutally beaten to death in Laramie, Wyoming, because of his sexual orientation, we can see an openly intolerant attitude flaunted in front of the American people. One camp argues that situations such as these need to be addressed differ- ently than other crimes because the victims were not selected randomly, but they were chosen because of their characteristics-something they cannot change. There is also the notion of community as a victim, that holds that when an individual or group is victimized because of characteristics, the entire com- munity becomes a victim. Examples would be in the case of James Byrd. The African American community could feel a heightened sense of fear and isola- tion. The same could hold true with the gay and lesbian community in the Matthew Shepherd case. In a civil society, we cannot allow predators to roam the streets preying on individuals who do not fit the profile that others feel is acceptable. These vio- lators should be punished more severely. Hate crime laws provide enhance- ments that allow prosecutors to seek longer sentences. Also, with hate crimes many law enforcement agencies have created policies that provide additional care for the victims-similar to domestic violence victims. Other compelling issues regarding hate crimes are the reporting and prose- cuting of hate crime, victim assistance, and society's acceptance of intoler- ance. Addressing any of these issues would constitute an entire chapter within themselves, but for purposes of this editorial they will be discussed very briefly. Hate crime reporting has become a controversial issue. If all law enforce- ment agencies do not contribute data to the reports required for the federal Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, Vol. 15 No. 1, February 1999 3-5 @ 1999 Sage Publications, Inc. 3 from the SAGE Social Science Collections. All Rights Reserved.

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