Reference Reviews

Reference for Students

Hate Crimes. Edited by Laurie Willis. Detroit, Mich.: Greenhaven Press Thomson Gale, 2007. 119 p. $28.70. ISBN 978-0-7377-2889-7.

The introduction reports that hate crime was identified by the U.S. House of Representatives as "a crime in which the defendant’s conduct was motivated by hatred, bias, or prejudice, based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation of another individual or group of individuals." Chapter 1 describes "Messengers of Hate" with skinheads, neo-Nazis, and those "Warning against the Sin of Homosexuality," "Promoting the White Supremacist Worldview," and "Recruiting Hate in Prison." Other chapters include "Survivors and Witnesses Speak Out," "Taking Action against Hate," and "Hate Crimes and Genocide." While it is unlikely that any book would do more than bring awareness of the problem, this certainly does that.