The paper first outlines a framework for understanding bias crimes, using the American context as a point of departure, and addresses several of the challenges that Professor Minow has set for those who argue in support of bias crime legislation. First, criminal punishment must elevate society even as it punishes wrongdoers. Second, criminal punishment has an essential educative and expressive function. Perhaps put more accurately, criminal punishment plays a role in the development and expression of societal values, a wide-ranging process that involves public and private realms, and moves well beyond legal systems to embrace education, civic and social organizations, and private social relations. The experiences of the United Kingdom may have much to teach us in this regard.