Formulating the legislative structure of a hate crime

While hate crime legislation is well established in England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, Ireland has failed to address the issue of hate crime on a statutory basis. Law reform processes are currently underway across these jurisdictions, and this article seeks to explore a fundamental question in this context, that is, the relative merits of various approaches to structuring hate crime legislation.

Analysis and examination of terrorism crime legislation

In the past 10 years, China’s legislation on terrorist crimes has undergone great changes, which not only responds to the inherent requirements stipulated in the international conventions, but also refl ects the policy governing terrorist crimes. The legislation of terrorist crime presents new dimensions, specifi cally for the preventive strengthening, the increase of severity, the increase of rigour. Under the background of risk society, the legislation of terrorism crime has positive social signifi cance, which is embodied in the combination of punishment after the event and prevention before the event, the unity of behavior harm and personal danger. In the future criminal legislation, it is necessary to enhance the foresight of legislation, promote the scientifi c nature of legislation, and strengthen the effective connection between criminal law and anti-terrorism security law, which should be the development direction of terrorism crime legislation

Formulating the legislative structure of a hate crime

Whilst hate crime legislation is well established in the three jurisdictions of the United Kingdom, Ireland has failed to address the issue of hate crime on a statutory basis. This article will seek to explore what legislative structure is most appropriate for such legislation in an Irish context, drawing on a comparative analysis of both the form and operation of such legislation in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Canada.

HATE CRIMES AGAINST BLACK LESBIAN SOUTH AFRICANS: WHERE RACE, SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND GENDER COLLIDE (PART II)

This article, which is the second of a two-part submission, examines the South African legal position pertaining to sexual offences and murder as a continuation of the theme introduced in Part One. The authors then examine the concept of motive before providing a brief overview of hate crime legislation and/or policy in the United States of America and Germany. The core of the article examines three possible routes for South Africa to curb hate crime. Firstly, the creation of substantive hate crime law in the form of legislation, secondly, the amendment of current legislation to incorporate protection against this form of crime and thirdly, the retention of thecurrent status quo coupled with the roll-out of civil society initiatives to curb hate-motivated crime. The conclusion of the article provides recommendations from a civil society and criminal justice perspective.

10. Non-fatal offences against the person

Course-focused and contextual, Criminal Law provides a succinct overview of the key areas on the law curriculum balanced with thought-provoking contextual discussion. This chapter discusses the main non-fatal offences involving violence against the person. Non-fatal offences include assault and battery, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, wounding and inflicting grievous bodily harm, wounding or causing grievous bodily harm with intent, administering poison, and offences related to explosive substances and corrosive fluids (including offences related to ‘acid attacks’). The chapter analyses in detail consent as a defence to non-fatal offences against the person, including discussion of recent case law on whether consent is a defence to acts of ‘body modification’. The chapter also outlines necessity and lawful correction. The chapter’s ‘The Law in Context’ feature examines the scope of ‘hate crime’ legislation.

Securing Manifest Destiny

This article argues Mexico’s war on drugs was a tactic by elites in both the United States and Mexico to legitimate the Mexican neoliberal state’s political, economic, and ideological governance over Mexican society. Through tough on crime legislation and maintenance of free market policies, the war on drugs is a “morbid symptom” that obfuscates the crisis of global capitalism in the region. It is a way of managing a crisis of legitimacy of Mexico’s neoliberal state. Through arguments of Mexico as a potential “failed state” and a “narco-state,” the United States has played a leading role by investing in militarized policing in the drug war and securitization of Mexico’s borders to expand and maintain capitalist globalization. In the twenty-first century, the ideology of manifest destiny persists, but instead of westward expansion of the U.S. state, it serves as the maintenance and expansion of global capitalism.

Neglect, Marginalization, and Abuse: Hate Crime Legislation and Practice in the Labyrinth of Identity Politics, Minority Protection, and Penal Populism

Using Hungary as a case study and focusing on legislative policies and the practical application of hate crime legislation, this article shows the various ways legal policy can become misguided in the labyrinth of identity politics, minority protection, and penal populism. The first mistake states can make, the author argues, is not to adopt hate crime legislation. The second error arguably pertains to conceptualizing hate crimes as an identity protection but not a minority-protection mechanism and instrument. The third fallacy the author identifies concerns legislative and practical policies that conceptualize victims based on self-identification and not on the perpetrator’s (or the wider community’s) potential perception and classification. The fourth flaw concerns the abuse of the concept of hate crime when it is applied in interethnic conflicts wherein members of minority communities are perpetrators and the victims are members of the majority communities. The fifth is institutional discrimination through the systematic underpolicing of hate crimes.

Hate Crime Policy in the United States

Hate crime policy has developed from the early legislation of the 1968 Civil Rights Act to the 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act, to be increasingly inclusive in terms of identity and comprehensive in terms of ramifications. Hence a body of scholarship around the trajectory and implications of hate crime laws has developed, as has a robust discourse on the definitions of hate crime itself and theories on who perpetrates bias-motivated violence and why it occurs. Between definitions of hate crime, a tension exists between legal definitions and those of theorists who are attempting incorporate understanding of context into the definition. Similarly, the theories on who perpetrates hate crimes and why they occur exhibit tensions between strain-based theories. While some scholars have deployed Merton’s (1938) strain theory associated with societal anomie, others point to changing norms. As hate crime laws have become more inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression, avenues of research into the disparities in experience of bias-motivated crimes between enumerated categories has increased. Persistent in the research on hate crime is the deficiency of data on victimization and ramifications beyond direct victims. While data on the scope of the policies is clear, inconsistencies in data collection around victimization render available resources insufficient. Most recently, research on hate crime policy has intersected with queer theory to question whether hate crime laws are positive for the LGBTQ community or society at large. Organizations such as the Silvia Rivera Law Project, for example, have pushed back on calls for inclusive hate crime laws via challenging the propensity to provide additional resources to the prison-industrial complex. Furthermore, queer scholars of history find a disconnect between the origins of the LGBTI movement in resisting police powers to be antithetical to promoting increased police powers in the form of hate crime legislation.