Penalty Enhancement for Hate Crimes: An Economic Analysis

Dhammika Dharmapala and Nuno Garoupa

American Law and Economics Review, 2004, vol. 6, issue 1, 185-207

Abstract: This article develops an economic analysis of penalty enhancements for bias-motivated (or "hate") crimes. Our model allows potential offenders' benefits from a crime to depend on the victim's group identity, and assumes that potential victims have the opportunity to undertake socially costly victimization avoidance activities. We derive the result that a pattern of crimes disproportionately targeting an identifiable group leads to greater social harm (even when the harm to an individual victim from a bias-motivated crime is identical to that from an equivalent non--hate crime). In addition, we consider a number of other issues related to hate crime laws. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.

Date: 2004
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