ASC Proposal 2007
177). According to this perspective, state legislatures may enact hate crime statutes due to the
pressure of conforming to federal legislation and/or other states’ actions.
Moreover, many scholars argue that hate crime laws are created as a symbolic tool used
to educate the public on the moral and social norms of a community (see Gerstenfeld, 2004, p.
21-22; Jacobs & Henry, 1996). As Stolz (1999) elucidated in her study of the Violence Against
Women Act of 1994, legislation is often enacted in order to perform one or more symbolic
functions: educative, reassurance/threat, moral educative, and as a model for the states.
Moreover, as explained by Stolz (1999), “…it appears that much federal criminal justice
legislation has been introduced or enacted primarily in response to public outcries of concern
about a crime problem and not in reaction to interest group lobbying, narrow constituency
politics, or changes in the composition of Congress” (p. 402).
Hence, as illustrated in the aforementioned discussion, there are many theories and
explanations as to why hate crime laws are created. Whether policies develop out of a response
to a social problem, or whether interest groups and media accounts are successful in framing the
issue to a receptive political environment, may affect how such legislation is formulated within a
given jurisdiction. Therefore, as Becker (1999) asserts, future research is needed to further
examine the varying influences on different types of hate crime laws (e.g. ethnic intimidation
versus the inclusion of gender), and the impact of such laws (p. 262).
In this study, I examine the process in which gender was included as a protected status in
New Jersey’s hate crime statutes. To do so, I conduct content analyses of legislative records and
media reports (e.g. newspaper editorials, newspaper articles, and other press releases) pertaining
to the development of this legislation. By analyzing the legislative histories and media accounts
prior to the passage of the law, I discovered the key players (e.g. special interest groups and
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Convention