Although crimes motivated by bias or hate are not a new phenomenon, these acts are increasingly being recognized as exceptionally harmful to both individual victims and to communities. In response, legislation criminalizing acts of hate has been implemented in various countries. As Mark Austin Walters, author of Hate Crime and Restorative Justice, points out, the criminalization of acts motivated by hatred serves at least two important social functions. First, it is an important public acknowledgment that hate crimes are intrinsically more harmful than those committed without the motivation of hate. Second, the legal framework for hate crime affords criminal justice agencies the ability to dedicate resources to dealing with these issues. While this book focuses on a restorative justice response to hate crimes, Walters maintains a balanced perspective throughout the book, often reminding readers of these benefits of a criminal justice response to hate crime, among others.

The crux of thi ...