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Hate Crime Laws Summary

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Summary: The article talks about the “ Hate Crime Laws” and the controversial issue “should we punish attitudes as well as action?.” The author began the article by the example about a victim of hate crime which focused national attention in the fall of 2010. That example illustrated that hate crime may be punished more severely. The author mentioned three arguments of supporters in favor of hate crime legislation. The author also stated that most hate crime cases are acted by young people and hate crime laws are threat to First Amendment guarantees of free speech. Following the laws, the offenders are sentence not just for their actions but also for their attitudes. The article continued with the other example of hate crime cases. The author concluded with a mention: …show more content…
These hate crime laws end up extending the punishment by 3 offense levels at the very least. That means that someone committing a crime off of their own personal beliefs will be punished more than someone committing a crime at random. Some find these laws to be a good thing because they try to mainly protect minorities, and try to prevent racism and hatred. Others disagree because they believe incentives should not be considered in a court of law, and that hatred and free thinking is protected by law, and hate crime laws basically violate the right to free thinking. The question is often asked should we or should we not have legislation against hate crimes based on gender or sexual preference or even make laws that have a certain punishment for hate crimes. Yes, we should. I believe that hate crimes laws should exist for some reasons. Firstly, many times, it is possible to determine that a person committed a crime because of -isms or -phobias. I have heard of many cases of people actually writing epithet near or on the crime scene. That is how many cops know that a hate crime has been committed. And sometimes, the testimonies from

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