The discussion component is an important part of your grade, so please take care to give this part of the class sufficient consideration and effort.

You must make an original post by Thursday, and respond to at least two other posts by the Sunday.  Late initial posts will be docked by 10% of the grade otherwise earned, daily. Posting on the last day limits the amount of discussion and interaction and will result in a point deduction when posts are all listed on the same day. Overall tone for discussion boards should remain formal.  Remember accuracy is important. Emoticons and acronyms should be avoided and no creative spelling should be used. Proof-read your posts, as you will be graded on accuracy as well as content. In your original discussion post, it is required that you cite at least two pieces of concrete evidence. This means that you need to cite, at least twice, from a source in this class: the textbook, information and media shared in the “required” material or optional articles in the “additional resources”.  Information outside of the course (if used) should be fact based. These are the only options because your discussions need to be based in evidence – your responses need to be substantive. Further, this is a 400-level class where we are reading, writing, and thinking about research in a concrete manner. Your posts are considered academic writing. When asked to support your positions, please cite correctly to avoid plagiarizing and to receive full credit. This means not including direct, or long direct quotes which is not proper APA.  Proper citations are paraphrased information with a reference to the author at the end of the sentence or paragraph.  Paraphrasing information into your own words indicates comprehension and understanding of concepts, and direct quotes do not. All original posts should meet the minimum word count (500) requirement but will likely need to be longer to adequately address question prompts. All response posts should be at least 150 words each, and be non-repetitive, substantive sentences. Please remain primarily in the third (and not first) person for original posts. For more information on writing and proper APA please see the two tutorials below. Please see the grading matrix as well: 

Grading Matrix Discussion Boards.pdf

CRJ Writing Guidelines Helpful Info.pdf

PROPER CITATION OF REFERENCE MATERIAL.pdf

Our Bachman text covered how our current laws define hate/bias crimes as targeting a victim due to race, ethnicity, disability or sexual orientation.  Today, nearly every state and the federal government have laws that require sentencing enhancements for offenders who commit crimes motivated by hate. 

Please respond to the following:

What are the positive aspects of hate crimes legislation? What are the possible negative aspects?

Is the current legislation satisfactory?  What are advantages and disadvantages to expanding it?

While legislation is important, what else can we do as individuals, as families, in our communities and as a society to lessen (or prevent) these crimes from happening? 

For the above please do not include personal opinions without evidence. Please remain in the third person and do not begin sentences with “I personally believe” or “I believe”.  See below.