What are some of the legislative challenges to hate or bias crimes?
What will be an ideal response?
No national consensus exists about whether hate crimes should be a separate crime, and those supporting hate crime statutes disagree about what should be included.
States vary greatly in legislation related to hate crimes. The most common elements of hate crime legislation include (1) enhanced penalties, (2) criminal penalties for vandalism of religious institutions, and (3) collection of data.
Legislation must keep up with the technology used to spread messages of hate. Despite such legislation, those who propagate messages of bigotry, intolerance, and hatred claim they have a constitutionally protected right to do so, citing free speech, due process, and equal protection challenges. And although state courts have repeatedly upheld the constitutionality of legislation that enhances penalties for hate-motivated violence, in 2003 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Virginia law banning cross burning, saying the statute violated the First Amendment (Virginia v. Black).
Furthermore, research has found minimal public support for harsher penalties for offenders who commit hate crimes than for offenders who commit identical crimes with no biased motivation.
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