Hate Crime In North America Essay by Top Papers

The phenomenon of "hate crime" is arguably one of the most contentious aspects of North American society today. While in both the United States and Canada there exist a range of hate crime legislation, as well as a significant body of scholarly literature on the subject, there is also an extraordinary degree of controversy over the concept, its definition, and how it is applied in practice as a matter of law enforcement. In order to explain this phenomenon and the complex debate surrounding it, this paper will argue that the theoretical model of "democratic racism" represents a valuable analytical tool in dissecting the array of intermingling social and political forces at play in this area. As will be seen, the bankruptcy of existing legislation and law enforcement practices with respect to hate crime in North America is demonstration of the validity of the "democratic racism" model, and of the need to systematically address this problem that policy-making elites wish to remain invisible.