Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

There's a difference between treating someone with respect and respecting them as an individual. Your comment applies to the latter, but not the former IMO.

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The reasoning behind it is because certain minority and disadvantaged groups are more likely to be discriminated against, targeted or treated less favourably because of the protected group that they belonged to. As society wishes to stamp this out, this is deemed to be worse than a random attack and the punishments are more severe.

I agree that everyone should be protected against unacceptable behaviour, but an elderly or disabled person for example, is likely to suffer more severely than a young able bodied person and less likely to be able to defend themselves.