Hate Crimes

The presence of bias-motivated crime, or hate crime, on college and university campuses is a reality in today's cultural landscape. Hate crime is a criminal offense that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender's bias against a particular race, color, religion, disability, ethnicity/national origin, or sexual orientation. Officials at institutions of higher learning may be asked to deal with these types of offenses on many different levels, ranging from cultural education to the campus judicial system to the criminal justice system. This entry outlines the attributes of current hate crime legislation on both the federal and state levels and describes currently pending federal hate crime legislation. The goals of hate crime legislation are then reviewed, along with arguments for the view that ...