Hate Crime Flashcards
What are the different categories for hate crime?
Disability, Race, Religion/Faith, Sexual Orientation, Transgender status
Hate crimes can take various forms…
physical: assault, murder, arson, property damage, vandalism
threat of attack: offensive/abusive contact, intimidation,
verbal: insults, bullying, taunting, abusive gestures
cyberhate: harrassment, trolling, cyber-bullying, hate sites
BCS 2009/10 and 2010/11 say there are… incidents a year
260,000 out of 9,561,000 incidents reported to BCS
hate crime incidents overall in the BCS…?
3%. (4% of personal and 2% of household crime were hate-related)
How common is repeat victimisation?
31% were victimised more than once in the previous year and 18% were victimised three or more times
This is similar to the extent of repeat victimisation for BCS crime overall (33%)
What % of victims of household hate crime had been victimised more than once in the previous year?
37%
29% of victims of BCS household crime were repeat victims
What % of victims of personal hate crime had been victimised more than once in the previous year?
19%
21% of victims of BCS personal crime were repeat victims
What is the most common feeling experienced by victims?
Anger, Annoyance, Shock, Feeling Vulnerable, Fear…
Social attitudes increasingly less homophobic…
Mason and Palmer (1996) 73% reported public ridicule/name calling, Robinson and Williams (2003) reported 64% and Williams and Robson (2007) reported 22% of LGBT were verbally harassed in last 12 months.
incidents of physical violence towards LBGT decreased over time
Robinson and Williams (2003): 49% men 30% women
Williams and Robson (2007): 5% of men and women
For sexual orientation cases of hate crime
men are victimised more than women, but in Williams and Robson (2007) most victims described their attack as not very serious
Victims psychological reaction post-incident..
short and long term effects include; Sleep deprivation Fear/Anxiety/Panic attacks Loss of confidence/feelings of vulnerability Depression/Isolation Shock/Stress Avoid certain areas
Hate crime victims fit ‘ideal victim’ (Christie, 1986) in terms of…
vulnerable, in the minority, and often suffer in silence
Mason (2014) argued that hate crime victims…
can be regarded as illegitimate and fail to make people understand their maltreatment, they fail to convince others that they are undeserved targets of harm that is sufficiently serious to warrant collective concern.
Williams & Tregidga 2013 argue that victims…
often neutralise their suffering due to the endemic and sustained nature of their experience.
Walklate 2011 argues that victims…
Victims have built up a resilience to hate incidents – even though exposed to adversity they are able to cope with that adversity and neutralise its effects
King and Sutton (2013) hate crime (and prejudice) prevalence changes
when exceptional “trigger” events, such as 9/11 or riots occur, and people that share similar characteristics to the offender are targeted e.g. muslims
Cyberhate happens because… (Festinger, 1952)
deindividuation (anonymity, lack of self awareness in groups, disinhibition) and so emotional content is more likely to be expressed - nminimal victim-offender contact
Cyberhate prevalence on twitter…
1% of tweets are classed as ‘hate speech’ - fluctuations are consistent with media reports of trigger events
what is hate crime?
any crime that is perceived to be motivated by some form of prejudice against the victim or a group that is associated with minority status
offenders and victims are more likely to be strangers…
“thrill seekers”
2000 BCS: 54% strangers in racially motivated crimes
60% strangers in homophobic incidents
the 3 main issues with hate crime are..
the lack of clear definition, significant under reporting and variance in type - sustained low level harrassment vs single incident of severe violence
Crime and Disorder Act 1998 made…
racial aggravation a mitigating factor in establishing the severity of an event - racial motivations = more severe charge
Criminal Justice Act 2003 added…
extended the laws to include prejudices based on sexual orientation and disability
offenders are most likely to be male
TRUE. 100% of transgender HC perps were male. And between 70-80% for all other types.
offenders are most often…
Young white male (most homophobic offenders are aged 16-20, and most race hate offenders under 30)
most hate crime offences take place
near the home, offenders are neighbours or locals
Levin and McDevitt (1993) found that
most homophobic attacks occur with groups of perpetrators, most victims were alone
Berill (1992): LGBT hate crime perpetrators are…
50% were under 21, of which 90% were male (women spectators instead) and inflicted by STRANGERS
Katz 1988 ‘seductions of crime’ would say that
most perps were bored, looking for entertainment/fun (applies well to youth offenders)
Sutherland’s (1939) Differential Association says that
deviant behaviour is learned in interaction with others, in groups and intimate relationships, they learn the necessary techniques but also the mentality that deviance is socially accepted/revered
Reactive (defensive) hate crime is..
Offender is reacting to what he/she considers to be an intrusion - Nature of the trigger incident is an important factor
e.g. sight of a same sex couple kissing
mission crimes
the offender, usually acting alone, seeks to rid the world of a particular kind of people whom he/she views as evil
- associated with poor mental health/religious activism
Adorno (1950) and Allport (1954) Authoritarian parents
are overly harsh, inconsistent, aggressive, intimidating
Child learns that the world is not equal, but hierarchical, and that power and authority are the important factors in human relationships
Because these children fear showing aggression toward their parents, they displace that aggression onto others
Asch, Sherif and Milgram
conforming to an authority figure or to a group consensus
Jennings and Murphy (2000):
and explanations for homophobic attitudes
the shame explanation for hostility towards homosexuality, is that the individual male is ashamed of his homoerotic feelings and represses them
Humiliation theory, on the other hand, states the great majority of men are not homophobic because they fear their homosexual tendencies, but because they fear that other men will think they might be homosexual
Ray et al (2004): the shame offensive
offenders saw themselves as weak, disregarded, unfairly treated and made to feel small by their Asian victims so an act of racial violence represented an attempt to re-establish control, to escape from shame into a state of pride
Defended Community Perspective’ (Suttles 1972)
they’re fine, but not in MY neighbourhood..
people defend against threats posed to valued identities and ways of life
prejudice becomes more acute under competition for scarce economic resources eg. they take our jobs!
This is important because hate crimes symbolically target whole social groups, not just individual victims
As such, these crimes may have particularly pernicious consequences that reverberate across communities
Sykes and Matza’s (1957) five techniques of neutralization
DDAQN
Denying any real harm or injury had been done;
De-humanising the victims and casting them as deserving of their victimisation (‘denial of the victim’);
Appealing to higher loyalties such as peer group bonds;
Questioning the position of those who would seek to condemn them;
‘Neutralising their responsibility’ by blaming other factors for what they did.
