Hate Crime

Question 1

What are the different categories for hate crime?

Answer 1

Disability, Race, Religion/Faith, Sexual Orientation, Transgender status

Question 2

Hate crimes can take various forms…

Answer 2

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

Question 3

BCS 2009/10 and 2010/11 say there are… incidents a year

Answer 3

260,000 out of 9,561,000 incidents reported to BCS

Question 4

hate crime incidents overall in the BCS…?

Answer 4

3%. (4% of personal and 2% of household crime were hate-related)

Question 5

How common is repeat victimisation?

Answer 5

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%)

Question 6

What % of victims of household hate crime had been victimised more than once in the previous year?

Answer 6

37%

29% of victims of BCS household crime were repeat victims

Question 7

What % of victims of personal hate crime had been victimised more than once in the previous year?

Answer 7

19%

21% of victims of BCS personal crime were repeat victims

Question 8

What is the most common feeling experienced by victims?

Answer 8

Anger, Annoyance, Shock, Feeling Vulnerable, Fear…

Question 9

Social attitudes increasingly less homophobic…

Answer 9

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.

Question 10

incidents of physical violence towards LBGT decreased over time

Answer 10

Robinson and Williams (2003): 49% men 30% women

Williams and Robson (2007): 5% of men and women

Question 11

For sexual orientation cases of hate crime

Answer 11

men are victimised more than women, but in Williams and Robson (2007) most victims described their attack as not very serious

Question 12

Victims psychological reaction post-incident..

Answer 12

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

Question 13

Hate crime victims fit ‘ideal victim’ (Christie, 1986) in terms of…

Answer 13

vulnerable, in the minority, and often suffer in silence

Question 14

Mason (2014) argued that hate crime victims…

Answer 14

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.

Question 15

Williams & Tregidga 2013 argue that victims…

Answer 15

often neutralise their suffering due to the endemic and sustained nature of their experience.

Question 16

Walklate 2011 argues that victims…

Answer 16

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

Question 17

King and Sutton (2013) hate crime (and prejudice) prevalence changes

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Cyberhate happens because… (Festinger, 1952)

Answer 18

deindividuation (anonymity, lack of self awareness in groups, disinhibition) and so emotional content is more likely to be expressed - nminimal victim-offender contact

Question 19

Cyberhate prevalence on twitter…

Answer 19

1% of tweets are classed as ‘hate speech’ - fluctuations are consistent with media reports of trigger events

Question 20

what is hate crime?

Answer 20

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

Question 21

offenders and victims are more likely to be strangers…

“thrill seekers”

Answer 21

2000 BCS: 54% strangers in racially motivated crimes

60% strangers in homophobic incidents

Question 22

the 3 main issues with hate crime are..

Answer 22

the lack of clear definition, significant under reporting and variance in type - sustained low level harrassment vs single incident of severe violence

Question 23

Crime and Disorder Act 1998 made…

Answer 23

racial aggravation a mitigating factor in establishing the severity of an event - racial motivations = more severe charge

Question 24

Criminal Justice Act 2003 added…

Answer 24

extended the laws to include prejudices based on sexual orientation and disability

Question 25

offenders are most likely to be male

Answer 25

TRUE. 100% of transgender HC perps were male. And between 70-80% for all other types.

Question 26

offenders are most often…

Answer 26

Young white male (most homophobic offenders are aged 16-20, and most race hate offenders under 30)

Question 27

most hate crime offences take place

Answer 27

near the home, offenders are neighbours or locals

Question 28

Levin and McDevitt (1993) found that

Answer 28

most homophobic attacks occur with groups of perpetrators, most victims were alone

Question 29

Berill (1992): LGBT hate crime perpetrators are…

Answer 29

50% were under 21, of which 90% were male (women spectators instead) and inflicted by STRANGERS

Question 30

Katz 1988 ‘seductions of crime’ would say that

Answer 30

most perps were bored, looking for entertainment/fun (applies well to youth offenders)

Question 31

Sutherland’s (1939) Differential Association says that

Answer 31

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

Question 32

Reactive (defensive) hate crime is..

Answer 32

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

Question 33

mission crimes

Answer 33

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

Question 34

Adorno (1950) and Allport (1954) Authoritarian parents

Answer 34

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

Question 35

Asch, Sherif and Milgram

Answer 35

conforming to an authority figure or to a group consensus

Question 36

Jennings and Murphy (2000):

and explanations for homophobic attitudes

Answer 36

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

Question 37

Ray et al (2004): the shame offensive

Answer 37

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

Question 38

Defended Community Perspective’ (Suttles 1972)

Answer 38

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

Question 39

Sykes and Matza’s (1957) five techniques of neutralization

DDAQN

Answer 39

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.