gender: hate crimes]


Subject: gender: hate crimes]
sverhoef@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
Date: Thu Nov 11 1999 - 05:20:00 CST


> But another way of framing this question is to ask, does the evidence
> point to practices in society which manifest in the patterned devaluing
> of certain "types" of lives by other members of that society and or the
> state?
>
And if so, what tools might / should we bring to bear on the problem?

> aren't most crimes motivated by hate?
>

The question of motive is a weirdy. Certainly some crimes are motivated
by need. It's hard to see forging a check, or shoplifting (the crimes
women most frequently commit), as motivated by hate. (Although,
checking out the price tags at Neiman's, you could form something of a
counter argument.)

Are most acts of violence motivated by hate?
Are the victims known to their attackers, or are they hated by virtue of
a preceding conflict interaction (and if so, what sparked this
conflict?) Or were they just picked out because they embody an
unpopular stereotype and make an easy target? (Because they generate
enough antipathy amoung the group at large to unsure that no one else is
likely to step in to help. Or the lifestyle on the margins makes them
easy to find, and isolated.)

Yeah, I know I'm dealing with broad categories--very un-pomo. That
seems to be what always happens when the state steps in. But I think it
STARTS happening before the state steps in, you know? The states
efforts at categorically based interventions stem from attempts to
counter categorically based patterns of violence and oppression.

Susan



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