I am not an atty, but as I understand it, hate crimes are those in which a victim is targeted because he/she is a member of a certain group, such as a minority or a gay person. Does the same logic apply when a victim is targeted because he/she is a child? Are child molesters guilty of hate crimes?
Excellent question! IANA lawyer, either, so this is just my opinion, but I’d say no, in most cases. Child molesters certainly don’t hate children. Quite the opposite, in most cases. I can see the logic applying, if there were someone attacking children out of hate, though.
A victim’s status as a child is already a factor that comes into play when deciding what charges to file and what punishment to hand out and is usually, if not always, more severe than if the crime had been perpetrated against an adult. Therefore, there would be little point in adding “the underaged” as a group covered under this type of legislation, IMO.
And Davebear, if the opposite of “hate” is “love”, and if one defines “love” as “obtaining sexual gratification with”, then I might agree with you. Otherwise, your implication that child molesters love children is outrageous.
Well, some child molesters just do it because they don’t know how to deal with negative feelings.
On the other hand, there are the true paedophiles who are really fixated on children, and then… yeah.
Interesting question, but no, crimes against children are not typically thought of as hate crimes. Hate crime statutes are typically “enhancement” statutes, which increase the penalty range of a crime due to bias against a certain ethnic group, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, etc. Child molestation can only be perpetuated on children by definition. They don’t really arise out of any “bias” against children.
Well, let me clarify: even if a child molester were acting out of some “bias” against children, the rationale for enhancing his penalty under a hate crime statute wouldn’t be applicable. Children are the only class of people within the protection child molestation laws in the first place.
Outrageous? I don’t see how. I’m sure if you asked them, they’d tell you they love children. They probably even believe it, which is pretty much the only test there is. It may be a warped, twisted love, from our perspective, but if they think it’s love, who are we to say it isn’t?
On the other hand, I plead guilty to lazy posting. I, perhaps, should have given more thought to how I phrased my response.
A “hate crime” as the term is used in describing “hate crime laws” are ones where the victim is targeted, not as an individual, but owing to his/her categorization under one of the “suspect categories” – age, race, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identification, etc. Note that “age” is in the list; I would see no problem in a prosecution of someone who targets children in the commission of offenses, whether molestation or otherwise, under a “hate crime law” that includes “age” as one of the “suspect categories.”
There was no concept of “hate crimes” or “bias crimes,” or of enhancing the penalty for a crime if it was motivated by hate or bias toward a particular group, at common law. “Hate crimes” are a creature of statute, so what constitutes a “hate crime” is defined by the applicable statute. pravnik and Polycarp have listed the “suspect classifications” that hate-crime legislation typically identifies, but a particular law criminalizing certain behavior (or enhancing the penalty for certain crimes based on bias) can classify the protected group however the lawmakers choose. For example, in New York state, a killing that would otherwise be second-degree murder becomes first-degree murder if the victim is a police officer. The statute that enhances the penalty for killing a police officer is not what is traditionally considered a “hate crime” law (particularly since it addresses the victim’s status rather than the criminal’s state of mind), but you can see how drawing a bright line about what is or is not a “hate crime” can be difficult. A “hate crime” generally is any crime where an element of the crime, or a factor enhancing the penalty for the crime, involves the criminal’s state of mind toward a defined group.