Hate Crime - The law on hate crime

The law on hate crime

The Government has announced proposals to strengthen the law on hate crime. As legislation, does this go far enough? [How does one deal with the problem of proving hate is an aggravating factor? If the attempt to prove hate fails, does one lose the chance to prosecute for the non-aggravated offence?] How can people be encouraged to use the law as a means to tackle the problem?

IMPORTANT NOTICE

posted 11/10/2004 - 16:27 by emoderator1

There is still time for you to have your say but this consultation is run chiefly by you, the participants, so please make sure you take advantage of this opportunity to feed your thoughts directly into the Committee’s official inquiry.

Draft proposals

posted 10/09/2004 - 11:51 by robin

The proposed law on hate crime is welcome but the minister, John Spellar, muddied the waters when he laid before Parliament in June combined proposals to address hate and car crime, as if they could be lumped together in a generic 'law and order' rhetoric. Hate crime--and this explains why the victim can be someone who is perceived to be different in terms of religion or 'race' or sexual orientation, almost apparently at random--is the product of a culture of intolerance which is deeply embedded in Northern Ireland. Car crime is more to do with how a minority of poorly socialised and disadvantaged young men fulfil at the expense of others the aspirations of a society which only values material acquisitions. Engendering a culture of tolerance is partly a matter of the law, but the weak deterrent effect of longer sentencing is far less important than the educative effect of making clear that hate crimes are utterly unacceptable in a civilised society. The legislation should apply to this subject only, so that a clear message is sent out from government.