ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on two different types of intervention, legal and social, with the same aim of changing the cultures underpinning hate violence. Challenging hate violence therefore necessitates challenging cultural values. In many cases, rehabilitative interventions, or other form of therapeutic intervention aimed at helping the offender begin to address the personal and social contexts for their offending will be appropriate and just. Culture consists of acts of communication between human beings which give meaning to human existence and create the interpreted reality of experience. In the context of the cultural foundations of hate violence, the communicative function of the law cannot be understated. The greater harms inflicted by hate crimes provide the justification for hate crime laws which impose greater penalties on convicted offenders compared with the penalties for similar but otherwise motivated crimes. While hate crime laws are an important component of culture change, ultimately the reduction of hate violence depends upon persons modifying their attitudes and values.
