Law Commons^™

Bias Crimes: Unconscious Racism In The Prosecution Of Racially Motivated Violence, Tanya K. Hernandez

Faculty Scholarship

Within the past four years, a perceived surge of "bias crimes" has seized the nation's attention. Bias crimes, physical acts of violence used as an outlet for prejudiced hostilities, are usually street crimes spontaneously committed by casual clusters of "normal people on the street" with very little advanced planning. This Note focuses on the physical injuries to persons that result from bias crimes. Such physical injuries represent cog- nizable harms that can be redressed through criminal statutes.'