Abstract

This article argues that hate crime laws in England and Wales should be extended to protect age groups by aggravating offences that are based on or motivated by hostility to age groups. I critically assess the following arguments for this: that age-related hate crime can impose greater psychological distress than equivalent non-hate crime and this justifies the increased punishments that aggravated offences offer; that hate crime laws can justifiably protect older people because older people are relatively vulnerable to crime; that extending aggravated offences to protect age groups can justifiably punish hate crime offenders for their increased culpability in contributing to marginalisation of age groups; and creating distinct aggravated offences for age-hostile crimes has symbolic value to reflect the grave moral wrong of these crimes and to communicate that the state is committed to eradicating discrimination against age groups.

中文翻译：

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年龄歧视是一种仇恨犯罪：将加重罪行扩大到保护年龄组的案例

摘要

本文认为，英格兰和威尔士的仇恨犯罪法应扩展到保护年龄组，加重基于或出于对年龄组的敌意的犯罪。为此，我批判性地评估了以下论点：与年龄相关的仇恨犯罪比同等的非仇恨犯罪会带来更大的心理困扰，这证明加重罪行所提供的惩罚力度是合理的；仇恨犯罪法可以合理地保护老年人，因为老年人相对容易犯罪；将加重罪行扩大到保护年龄组可以合理地惩罚仇恨犯罪的罪犯，因为他们加重了导致年龄组边缘化的罪责；