ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a substantial body of evidence about the personal injuries of hate crime shows that, on average, hate crimes have the potential to hurt more than otherwise motivated crime. There is something more egregious about hate-motivated violence than about other kinds of violent criminal behavior. In situations of mass conflict such as wars and civil wars, the impact of violence is rarely, if ever, confined to the armed combatants. Civilian populations too suffer profoundly as human collateral damage. In conflicts motivated around ethnic and religious hatred, or where such hatred plays a role in inter-communal conflicts, civilian populations are not collateral damage, they are the deliberate target of violence, indiscriminately victimized because of their identity. The victim might suffer physical injury, experience emotional and psychological consequences, and manifest behavioral changes. In the case of hate violence, however, the harms inflicted can potentially be greater than identical but otherwise motivated violence.
