Abstract
This Essay will analyze how courts have defined gender-motivation, focusing on the Civil Rights Remedy cases decided before the law was struck down, in an attempt to cull from those cases the standards federal courts have used to assess gender-motivation. The article will first provide an overview of existing and proposed laws that offer some form of redress for gender-motivated crimes. It will then analyze cases decided under the Civil Rights Remedy, focusing on two key issues that have arisen as policymakers struggle with whether and how gender-based bias crimes fit in the rubric of hate crimes legislation. The first of these issues is how courts have assessed whether claims of domestic violence reflect discriminatory motivation, and what type of evidence they have found useful in that context. The second issue is how courts treated VAWA civil rights claims based on allegations of sexual assault, and what, if any, evidence, in addition to allegations of sexual assault, they found to indicate gender-motivation.
Recommended Citation
Julie Goldscheid & Risa E. Kaufman,
Seeking Redress for Gender-Based Bias Crimes- Charting New Ground in Familiar Legal Territory,
6
Mich. J. Race & L.
265
(2001).
Available at:
https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjrl/vol6/iss2/3
Included in
Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Law and Gender Commons, Legal Remedies Commons, Legislation Commons