The Philosophical Aspects of Hate Crime and Hate Crime Legislation

Abstract

In this introduction to the special symposium on the philosophy of hate crime, we provide an overview of the main philosophical aspects of hate crime and hate crime legislation. We point out that there are two overarching philosophical issues that span over the literature: the Conceptual Question—concerning what hate crime is—and the Normative Question—concerning the status of hate crimes and the justification of hate crime legislation. We also provide brief summaries of the articles in the special section and point to their relations to the broader themes.