Monday, April 30, 2007
Hate Crime Philosophy - A Praxis of Injustice and Inequality - Part 1
Wedgwood argues that one must apply the notion of “the same conduct” to judge if two crimes are equal from a moral perspective. This is already a tricky assertion, because crime is not and should not be defined or evaluated on the basis of the type of the perpetrator's motive or conduct alone. But more on this later.
First of all, regarding what the proponents of hate crime categories construe, what is the problem with the example offered that beating up someone because of alleged boredom is less worse than beating up someone because of some prejudice against homosexuality? It starts with the ultra-simplification of the motive, a reductionism that only serves to muddle and completely obfuscate the real complex set of motives. Boredom does not cause assault crimes. A complex set of aggregated motives need to be present to make someone who is bored commit a crime of battery.
First of all, regarding what the proponents of hate crime categories construe, what is the problem with the example offered that beating up someone because of alleged boredom is less worse than beating up someone because of some prejudice against homosexuality? It starts with the ultra-simplification of the motive, a reductionism that only serves to muddle and completely obfuscate the real complex set of motives. Boredom does not cause assault crimes. A complex set of aggregated motives need to be present to make someone who is bored commit a crime of battery.
