Between Hate Speech and Hate Crime
Alexander Brown, Adriana Sinclair · Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2023
Chapter 6 explores the distinction between the legal concepts of hate speech and hate crime. Our purpose is not only to shed light on but also to resolve the ambiguity, as well as to further illustrate and stress test our analyses. Sections 6.2 and 6.3 propose that the legal concept hate speech, formally speaking, only refers to laws which create bespoke crimes or other sorts of offences that do not have corresponding or parallel basic or base versions, whereas the legal concept hate crime only refers to laws which identify aggravated crimes that do have corresponding or parallel basic or base versions. Section 6.4 makes several key comparisons and contrasts between the concepts, beyond the merely formal analysis, while Section 6.5 develops an account of why the distinction between hate speech and hate crime matters legally speaking, both for victims and defendants. Finally, Section 6.6 discusses four potential grey areas of hate speech law, namely using threatening words or behaviour to stir up hatred; incitement to commit genocide; incitement to discrimination or violence; and torts and delicts involving racist abuse.