Author Donald B. Kraybill probes Amish hate crimes

In an extended edition of the weekly book pick, Tom Weber interviews the author of "Renegade Amish," a book that explores a series of hate crimes in Ohio's Amish community in 2011.

Many outsiders failed to understand the seriousness of the attacks, which involved cutting the beards of Amish men and the hair of an Amish woman. Donald B. Kraybill has studied the Amish from an academic perspective and testified in court following the 2011 attacks.

From Time:

No one, including the defendants and their attorneys, disputes that the attacks took place. The issue at stake in the trial was the motivation behind the attacks. What motives drove the assailants? Were they driven by family disputes, interpersonal conflict, or religion? The defendants argued that family malice and interpersonal bitterness prompted them to shear the beards and hair of the victims. The prosecution contended that religious differences propelled the attacks. The federal statute considers an attack a religious hate crime if an assailant "willfully causes bodily injury to any person . . . because of the actual or perceived . . . religion . . . of [that] person."