Hate Crimes: Criminal Law and Identity Politics

In 1990, Congress passed the Federal Hate Crime Statistics Act, which required the Justice Department to collect and publish statistics on the nature and number of crimes motivated by racial, religious, and ethnic prejudice. Since 1990, additional “hate crime” laws have been enacted at the federal level and in most states. Are such laws useful tools in the battle against bias‐​driven crime or do they represent a dangerous step in the direction of thought control? New York University law professor James B. Jacobs attempts to answer that question and many others in his new book.