ABSTRACT
The main justification for specific laws against racially aggravated crime is based on social cohesion. As E. Burney suggests, such crimes result in physical and psychological damage to individual victims. They may also affect others who share the victim’s “race” or ethnicity. The chapter sets out to build on Burney’s argument and discusses the legislative antecedents of the Crime and Disorder Act (CDA) on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and the specific context within which it was implemented in England and Wales. It considers the main provisions of the Act and how they have been interpreted by the courts. The chapter pays particular attention to the difficulties they have encountered in using the anti-hate crime provisions of the CDA to understand the motivation of those charged with racially aggravated offences. It argues that the message sent out by the CDA in response to “hate crime” is neither clear nor unambiguous.
