I thought hate crimes was just a motive. I mean if you have two scenarios - one where a driver hits and kills a person by accident and then another where the driver is a klan racist and runs down and kills a black person on purpose .. I would definetly punish the person who murdered someone on purpose more harshly.
I thought that was what hate crime was, just a very general description that implies motive.
edit :
Quote:
Originally Posted by ProggyMan
Should people be punished more severely for assaulting or otherwise causing harm to someone if they did it for a reason like their sexuality or race?
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This doesn't make sense entirely .. it doesn't say what you compare hate crimes to. If it's like I did and compare it to a crime which has no motive (accident), then yes - of course.
Without a comparison, the question is rather unclear and makes for a poor poll.