Hate crime laws have been getting mixed signals for years now. As they legally validate victims and track the violence occurring, they, more importantly, are rarely enforced or prosecuted. The fact that they have such low conviction rates is causing critics to argue if the legal validation is even worth it. The citizens and victims of these crimes need more resources and safety from these hate crimes, and the law is the only way that they can be put to a full stop. ​

The federal and state government need to make a change to these laws fast.

The opinions of those who have witnessed and been victims of hate crimes widely think the laws are ineffective, and recently, more and more citizens are in agreement.

“The inconsistent enforcement of the hate crime laws is harmful because inconsistent justice is inherently unfair and results in public distrust in the system. This public distrust surrounding contentious issues may then lead to more divisiveness and racial animosity in society” Michael Conklin, Endowed Professor of Business Law at Angelo State University and contributor to the Harvard Review, has written.

Not pursuing hate crime prosecution themselves might actually lead to more racial and religious discrimination.

The laws are showing to be ineffective in protecting the safety of the people, possibly causing a rise in hate crimes. ​Hate crimes laws are enforced on a very small scale, and the law itself is not strong enough to put a stop to the hate crimes happening. The law needs to be changed to be able to be large enough and strong enough to be able to actually enforce and show effectiveness of these laws.

“We need to improve our hate crime laws and engage in broader solutions to reducing hate in our country. Like any law, hate crime laws alone won’t fix a problem as large as rising hate violence,” Rebecca Farmer, career member of the Foreign Service, has said.

The need for expansion to the law is undeniable and noticed in all states. The longer and longer we let this go on, the more hate crimes people will commit because we would’ve shown them that there are very few consequences. People are convinced the government is too busy focusing on other things than addressing the crimes that are involved with racism, defamation, and discrimination. This gives citizens the wrong idea of the government that many already think is failing. If the government doesn’t step up soon the crime rates are going to increase drastically and they would have lost all control over the hate.

The Department of Justice reports that “the number of hate crime laws remain among the highest ever recorded. Many incidents remain unreported.” This shows how high the numbers are around hate crimes, and the same source states that 81% of those laws go unreported, showing how much we still don’t even know about the crimes all over the states.

We can see that hate crimes laws, while showing to be legally inclusive, are overall ineffective. They are inconsistent and rarely prosecuted, leading to a rise in hate crimes instead of a decrease. These laws need to be looked over and revised after changes have been made to make them more useful and more effective at keeping our citizens safe.