Putting Hate in Its Place: The Codification of Bias Crime Laws in a Model Penal Code

Abstract

Begun in 1952 and completed in 1962, the drafting of the Model Penal Code (M.P.C.) constituted an unparalleled stride forward in the development of the criminal law. Since 1962 however, our society, crime, and our society’s perception of crime have changed. With the benefit of hindsight, certain provisions of the Model Penal Code appear ill conceived, or if not ill conceived, at least profoundly outdated. If the Model Penal Code is to be true to its name, some degree of remodeling is needed. But remodeling implies more than repair and renovation: It implies wholesale elimination of some provisions and whole-cloth invention of others. In this latter category of provisions to be added fall, first, those needed to address antisocial phenomena that were either unknown or