Research On American Hate Crime Legislation

Hate crime is not the original concept of our country,but in recent years,academic experts in the judicial circles of China have transplanted this term into China to define the type of crime with some certain common characteristics that occurs frequently in the society.The legal terminology of hate crime first appeared in the United States.In the early 1990 s,American jurists attempted to define the type of crime which offenders commit the crime aimed specific groups of people on the basis of the prejudice factors such as race and religious beliefs as hate crime.Combining the situation of our country,hate crime is defined as the crime which offenders commit the crime aimed specific groups of people because of ethnic or religious discrimination and so on,including national extremist crime and religious extremist crime.So far,the United States has adopted the specialized legal pattern for reducing hate crime.Federal or state legislatures have issued a number of anti-hate crime related laws,including substantive law and procedural law.The legislative features of hate crime in the United States mainly include four aspects:increase sentencing,independent crime,civil rights treaties,and reporting regulations.On one hand,American hate crime legislation has been widely recognized and achieved remarkable achievements.On the other hand,it has also been questioned.Compared with the United States,our country does not adopt the specialized legal pattern for reducing hate crime but utilizes some accusations and types of crime closely related to hate crime in existing criminal legislation to punish offenders through judicial trial.Although it is not necessary for our country to adopt the specialized legal pattern for reducing hate crime like the United States,in view of the deficiencies in the legislation related to hate crime in China,we should dialectically draw on the advanced experience of the United States legislation in light of our national conditions.I will specifically put forward suggestionsfor improvement from three aspects:First,the adjustment of the crime system and the improvement of the charges related to hate crime,including the promotion of the status of the charges related to hate crime in special provisions of criminal Law,and the clear definition of the relevant charges and circumstances.Second,it is to improve the penalties for crimes related to hate crime,including increasing the penalties for subsequent acts,adding special penalties such as additional qualification penalties and property penalties to increase social governig effect of criminal law,and by adding measures to reduce penalties,so as to disintegrate hate criminal organizations from within to avoid more serious consequence.Thirdly,we should improve the legal system that is compatible with the criminal law,such as the system of collecting information on hate crime.