Law in Contemporary Society

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HateCrimes 4 - 20 Apr 2010 - Main.JessicaCohen
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 -- JessicaCohen - 20 Apr 2010 Earlier today, a jury on Long Island convicted a 19-year-old of manslaughter in the killing of an Ecuadorean immigrant. According to media reports, he and four friends had been "beaner-hopping" - a shockingly crude term for cruising around looking for Mexicans and other Hispanics to target with violence - when the defendant stabbed Marcelo Lucero. The incident brought national attention to growing racism by whites (mainly) against Hispanic/Latinos, immigrants and non-.
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 @jessica I'm not sure how I'd come down on the issue, and I agree with most of what you wrote, but I don't think increasing sentencing as a means of "general deterrence" is all that logical. I mean, doesn't society want to deter all violent crime, regardless of who the victim is? Killing or hurting anyone is societally loathsome, as you put it.

-- JoshuaHochman - 20 Apr 2010

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>		Josh -- with regards to the general deterrence...I just meant that because hate crimes are well-publicized, their prosecution may deter more future crimes more than private violence would. But you're right.

Jonathan - I think you're right. The "hate crime" formulation is definitely political - no doubt elected officials came up with them in part to court the vote of the population offended by a crime. The issue might also go to our society's emotional need for vengeance.

However, one issue remains for me. Is killing someone because he's Hispanic worse than killing someone for any other reason? What about vandalism - should a defnedant punished with a higher sentence, for instance, if he draws a swastika rather than a tag that says "JDC2130" or something?

-- JessicaCohen - 20 Apr 2010


Revision 4r4 - 20 Apr 2010 - 14:55:46 - JessicaCohen
Revision 3r3 - 20 Apr 2010 - 05:42:46 - JoshuaHochman
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