, Outline of the Lecture
• Socio-Historical context for the concept of hate crime
• Hate crime in England and Wales:
Evolution of the Concept of Hate Crime
Legal definitions
Reported crimes and victims of hate crime
Dark figure of hate crime
Harms related to hate crime
• Hate crime and critical victimology:
Structures, power and state (omission)
Vulnerability and ‘difference’
Case study: Disability hate crime
Case study: Muslim women as victims of hate crime
• Hate crime policy
Key concepts: Hate, prejudice, bigotry, identity, vulnerability, difference,
intersectionality
, A Very Short History
of Hate Crime
• Hate crime is not a novel phenomenon
• Wider recognition of hate crime attached to:
The 1960s civil rights movements and
identity politics
Victimology and victims’ rights movement
1970s-80s
Critical criminology and its subgroups (e.g.,
Southern Criminologies and other anti-
colonialist, anti-racist groups)
• In the US: During the 1980s several legal
amendments against criminal acts motivated
by prejudice → Hate Crime Statistics Act, 1990
• In the UK: Murder of Stephen Lawrence in
1993 → Macpherson Report in 1999
,Hate Crime in England and Wales
Legal Definitions, Statistics and Victim Characteristics
,Conceptual Issues and
Questions
• Global human rights issue with wider
social and political ramifications
• Socially constructed concept → Evolves
overtime; Definitions attached to their
socio-cultural context
• What is ‘hate’?
‘Emotive and conceptually ambiguou
label’ (Chakraborti and Garland, 2015
‘Hate’ is ‘distinctly unhelpful’ (Hall,
2005)
• Hostility, prejudice, bias, targeted
violence or hatred? Same or different?
• Incidence vs. crime?
, Evolution of the Definitions related to Hate
Crime in the UK (I)
Author Definition(s) and/or Description(s) regarding Hate Crime
/Source, Year
Macpherson, Racist Incident: Any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim
1999 other person
ACPO, 2009 Hate Incident: Any incident, which may or may not constitute a criminal
which is perceived by the victim or any other person, as being motivated
prejudice or hate.
Hate Crime: Any hate incident, which constitutes a criminal offence, perc
by the victim or any other person as being motivated by prejudice or hate
HM Hate Crime: A criminal offence which is perceived, by the victim or any o
Government, person, to be motivate by hostility or prejudice.
2009
Hate Motivation: Any crime or incident where the perpetrator’s hostility
prejudice against an identifiable group of people is a factor in determinin
is victimised
