HATE CRIMES: THEORETICAL PARADIGM

Abstract

Hate crimes are criminal offences, often violent and destructive, where the perpetratoris motivated by prejudice against the social group to which the victim belongs. Hatecrimes not only do great harm to the victims, but to society as a whole. Considering thespecifi c motive of commission and consequences of hate crimes, they have been distinguishedas a distinct type of crime, which is generally agreed upon in literature, and argumentsthat corroborate it are more convincing that those disputing it. The solution of basicconceptual issues paves the way to critically examine other dilemmas, which is not agreedupon by all either in theory or practice. The paper concludes that despite the fact that hatecrimes have been the subject of research for more than two decades, it is still necessary tocritically examine the theoretical soundness and practical usability of this concept.