For example, there are strong laws in the United States prohibiting rape and murder.  Despite these laws, rapes and murders continue to occur in America daily.  From 1996 through 2005, for instance, there was an average of over 45 homicides in the United States daily.  Prohibiting murder has not eliminated it.  Yet, people unwaveringly understand the continued need for laws criminalizing such society-destroying behavior.  As is the case for all criminal codes, one reason for having hate crime laws is deterrence.  Hate crime laws serve the purpose of reducing the frequency of bias-motivated crimes, even though the laws can’t eliminate them.  Generally speaking a so-called hate crime enhancement allows for the possibility for greater punishment of a perpetrator than would normally occur had the crime not been motivated by hatred.  Added punishment serves as a means of deterring to some extent bias-motivated crimes from taking place in America.  This benefits society because, as we’ve described, hate crimes terrorize communities.  Additionally, because hate crime perpetrators premeditatively select their victims, increasing the punishment for a hate crime perpetrator makes sense.   Why?  Because hate crime laws by their definition take into account the motive for the crime; and, perpetrator motivation (or lack thereof) has long played a role in American law for establishing culpability and exacting appropriate punishment.  For instance, killing someone is agreed to be more heinous when premeditation occurred as compared to the negligent, unplanned killing of another. This is why planned (first-degree) murders carry harsher punishments than unintentional killings of persons by, say, drunk drivers.

Another reason for hate crime laws to exist is to provide an added measure of protection to groups of people who are made more vulnerable in society because of the prejudices of others. In examining the history of the United States, African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans have all been targeted—because of their race or ethnicity—for unfair treatment, discrimination, and worse:  violence.  This does not mean that only persons of color are made more vulnerable by the prejudice-based criminal acts of others. Anyone can harbor anti-ethnic or racist beliefs and act them out criminally, not just whites.  This is why hate crime laws include protected categories (e.g., race) that include everyone, not just one particular group of persons (e.g., people of color).  So, for example, hate crime laws in the United States provide protection to Protestants and Muslims, and not merely to those who historically have been discriminated against or otherwise have been targeted in the United States because of their religious affiliation, such as Jews or Catholics.  Which groups within a protected category are more vulnerable than others in our society have changed in some respects over time; and, they will likely continue to change as society changes.  So hate crime laws which protect everyone are defensible on practical as well as constitutional grounds.