Part 1: What are the key issues in assessing hate crimes legislation and enforcement? Should “hate crimes” legislation be abandoned? Should they be strengthened? In answering this question, define “hate crime° statutes and discuss the criminological bases for these statutes and the obstacles they face in meeting constitutional requirements. Include relevant articles and cases. Restrict your sources to material covered in class and in the readings.
Part 2: Compare and Contrast the European and American approaches to dealing with hate speech as hate crimes. Discuss the key cases and key readings. Assess the argument that the First Amendment and the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment prevent states from enacting hate speech regulation and the argument that the Fourteenth Amendment demands that we regulate hate speech. What is the sociological/criminological impact of our present policy? What would the likely impact be of taking a different course? Restrict your sources to those either discussed in the lectures or assigned as readings.
