Academia from a Practitioner's Perspective: A Reflection on the Changes in the Relationship Between Academia, Policing and Government in a Hate Crime Context

Erik Doxtader and Charles Villa-Vicencio, eds. Through Fire with Water: The Roots of Division and the Potential for Reconciliation in Africa. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, Inc, 2003. 405 pp. Maps. Notes. $29.95. Paper. - Carolyn Nordstrom. Shadows of War: Violence, Power, and International Profiteering in the Twenty-First Century. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. 293 pp. Photographs. Notes. Bibliography. Index. 19.95. Paper. - Volume 48 Issue 2

Hate crimes have received substantial scholarly attention, largely focusing on victims from marginal groups. Large numbers of White Americans also report being the victim of racial hate crime, though very little research has sought to examine the etiology or meaning of anti-White hate crimes. The present work explores the neighborhood context of hate crimes against non-Hispanic Whites in a majority-White city—comparing police reports with self-reported victimizations. Police reports of anti-White hate crimes are most common in areas that have high rates of nonhate crimes and residential instability. Perceptions of bias incidents, by contrast, appear largely driven by the racial composition. Hate crimes against members of dominant groups appear fundamentally distinct from hate crimes against members of subordinate groups and require separate theoretical models of their substantive meaning and etiology. In general, White residents appear to interpret the motivations for victimizations through a racial lens—attributing anti-White motivations most often when they live near larger numbers of Black neighbors—and reporting them most frequently in disorganized and higher crime places. Implications for theory and research on hate crimes, racial threat, anti-White racism, and the effect of the racial composition on perceptions of crime are discussed.

Recent years have seen increased attention to the problem of hate crime, including such crime motivated by anti-gay bias. Although there is a growing body of research regarding the context of hate crime offending, there is a relative dearth of work investigating the community-level context of anti-gay hate crime. The current study investigates the community-level determinants of anti-gay hate crime in New York City from 2006 to 2010, using data obtained from the New York Police Department (NYPD)'s Hate Crimes Task Force (HCTF), one of the nation's leading hate crime police units. Using a framework drawing on group conflict and criminological theories, the current study examines anti-gay hate crime as an outcome of gay visibility, social disorganization, and economic strain. It is hypothesized that greater gay visibility, as well as social disorganization and poor and worsening economic conditions over time will be associated with increases in anti-gay hate crime. Results show that gay demographics, measured by static visibility and increasing gay populations over time, are shown to consistently predict higher levels of anti-gay hate crime. Adding to the generally mixed findings on the role of economic conditions in explaining hate crime, this study also finds that anti-gay hate crime occurs in more disadvantaged communities and communities marked by poorer economic conditions. The findings show anti-gay hate crime to be an outcome of gay visibility, disadvantage, and poor economic conditions, indicating that anti-gay crime may be an angry response to the strains present in the community. The study concludes with a discussion of the findings and implications for policy makers and practitioners.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the motives a person adopts in order to engage in hate-related behaviours within a prison setting. A subsidiary aim of the study was to compare this cohort of prisoners with prisoners who have been convicted for aggravated racism in the community.Design/methodology/approachIn order to gather data, an exploratory research design was adopted, utilising the method of semi-structured interviews. In total, a number of nine interviews were conducted. Qualitative analysis was then employed allowing for an examination of meaning in relation to the motives behind the commission of hate crimes to occur.FindingsThe findings revealed the presence of racist beliefs and attitudes in both groups involved in the study. Further similarities between the two groups included the perception of inequality and beliefs about racism. The differences between the two groups included poor emotional regulation and an inability to manage beliefs and subsequent behaviours about people from different ethnic groups, with those in custody seeming to be more reactive.Practical implicationsThe findings provide a preliminary insight into enhancing inmate safety. The environmental implications begin to reveal the complexity of hate-related behaviours in custody. There are differences between the context of hate crime committed in a prison environment compared to that committed in the community that require different solutions for addressing such behaviour. Further implications are considered in the final section of the paper.Originality/valueA large body of research has been conducted on prison violence, seldom does this research examine this issue within the context of hate crime. This preliminary study offers an insight into prison-based hate crime.

Violence and GenderVol. 4, No. 4 Special FeatureFree AccessSelected Literature WatchPublished Online:1 Dec 2017https://doi.org/10.1089/vio.2017.29013.litAboutSectionsPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail Firearm ViolenceCastillo-Carniglia A, Kagawa RMC, Webster DW, et al. (2017). Comprehensive background check policy and firearm background checks in three U.S. states. Inj Prev. [Epub ahead of print]; doi:10.1136/injuryprev-2017-042475.Cipriani G, Danti S, Carlesi C, Di Fiorino M. (2017). Armed and aging: Dementia and firearms do not mix! J Gerontol Soc Work. [Epub ahead of print]; doi:10.1080/01634372.2017.1376240.Díez C, Kurland RP, Rothman EF, et al. (2017). State intimate partner violence-related firearm laws and intimate partner homicide rates in the United States, 1991 to 2015. Ann Intern Med. 167, 536–543.Dillon KP, Bushman BJ. (2017). Effects of exposure to gun violence in movies on children's interest in real guns. JAMA Pediatr. [Epub ahead of print]; doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2017.2229.Meszaros J. (2017). Falling through the cracks: The decline of mental health care and firearm violence. J Ment Health. 26, 359–365.Peek-Asa C, Butcher B, Cavanaugh JE. (2017). Cost of hospitalization for firearm injuries by firearm type, intent, and payer in the United States. Inj Epidemiol. 4, 20.Resnick S, Smith RN, Beard JH, Holena D, et al. (2017). Firearm deaths in America: Can we learn from 462,000 lives lost? Ann Surg. 266, 432–440.Rosenberg M, Ranapurwala SI, Townes A, Bengtson AM. (2017). Do black lives matter in public health research and training? PLoS One. 12, e0185957.Simckes MS, Simonetti JA, Moreno MA, et al. (2017). Access to a loaded gun without adult permission and school-based bullying. J Adolesc Health. 61, 329–334.Smith RN, Seamon MJ, Kumar V, et al. (2017). Lasting impression of violence: Retained bullets and depressive symptoms. Injury. [Epub ahead of print]; doi:10.1016/j.injury.2017.08.057.Stroebe W, Leander NP, Kruglanski AW. (2017). The impact of the Orlando mass shooting on fear of victimization and gun-purchasing intentions: Not what one might expect. PLoS One. 12, e0182408.Hatred and ViolenceBenier K. (2017). The neighborhood context of hate crime: A comparison of violent and property offenses using rare events modeling. Violence Vict. 32, 584–608.Cichocka A, Dhont K, Makwana AP. (2017). On self-love and outgroup hate: Opposite effects of narcissism on prejudice via social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism. Eur J Pers. 31, 366–384.Danielson CM, Emmers-Sommer TM. (2017). “She stopped me from killing myself”: Bullied bloggers' coping behaviors and support sources. Health Commun. 32, 977–986.Gil-Borrelli CC, Martín-Ríos MD, Rodríguez-Arenas MÁ; en representación del Grupo de Investigación SIVIVO. (2017). Proposed action for the detection and care of victims of hate violence for health professionals. Med Clin (Barc). [Epub ahead of print]; doi:10.1016/j.medcli.2017.06.017.Valcore JL. (2017). Sexual orientation in state hate crime laws: Exploring social construction and criminal law. J Homosex. 1–24; doi: 10.1080/00918369.2017.1380992.White MH, Crandall CS. (2017). Freedom of racist speech: Ego and expressive threats. J Pers Soc Psychol. 113, 413–429.Wilkinson WW, Peters CS. (2017). Evaluations of antigay hate crimes and hate crime legislation: Independent and differentially predicted. J Homosex. 1–17; doi: 10.1080/00918369.2017.1364556.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 4Issue 4Dec 2017 InformationCopyright 2017, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.To cite this article:Selected Literature Watch.Violence and Gender.Dec 2017.152-152.http://doi.org/10.1089/vio.2017.29013.litPublished in Volume: 4 Issue 4: December 1, 2017Online Ahead of Print:November 13, 2017PDF download

State and federal hate crime laws punish crimes involving discrimination on the basis of a person's group characteristic, such as race, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, gender, or disability. The Supreme Court has refined the definition of hate crime through decisions which affirmed one type of hate crime law, but rejected another. Punishing hate crimes is consistent with the traditional aims of our criminal justice system. Our criminal laws consistently enhance penalties for seemingly similar conduct based on the risk, severity, and context of a particular crime. Carefully drafted hate crime laws punish conduct that is objectively more dangerous to victims and society.

Many studies into the antecedents of hate crime in the neighborhood combine offense categories, meaning that it is unclear whether or not there are distinct contextual factors associated with violent and property hate offenses. This study uses rare events modeling to examine the household and neighborhood factors associated with violent and property offenses. Using the Australian Community Capacity Study, the study focuses on the neighborhood characteristics influencing self-reported violent and property hate crime for 4,396 residents in Brisbane. Findings demonstrate important differences between the offense types. Violence is predicted by household renting and non-English language, whereas property offenses are predicted by household non-English language, neighborhood median income, and change in non-English-speaking residents. In both offense types, neighborhood place attachment acts as a protective factor. These findings highlight the theoretical implications of combining distinct hate crime types for methodological reasons.

Hate crime legislation has sparked substantial political controversy and scholarly discussion. Existing justifications for hate crime legislation proceed on the premise that the rationale supporting such legislation must be found either in the greater gravity of the wrongdoing involved or in the perpetrator's greater degree of culpability. This premise stems from a fundamental theory that dominates criminal law scholarship: the wrongfulness-culpability hypothesis. The wrongfulness-culpability hypothesis posits that the only two grounds that may justify disparate treatment of offenses are the greater wrongfulness of the act or the greater culpability of the perpetrator. Yet, all attempts to demonstrate that hate crimes are more wrongful or morally reprehensible than other crimes have failed to carry the day. This Article challenges the dominance of the wrongfulness-culpability hypothesis and proffers an alternative that supports bias crime legislation: the protection paradigm. The protection conceptualizes protection against crime as a good produced by criminal law and thus requires that it be distributed in an equal manner. Specifically, it imparts a duty on the state to equalize individuals' vulnerability to crime. An individual's vulnerability to crime can be defined as her expected harm from crime--that is, the probability of harm multiplied by its magnitude. A state may address the problem of vulnerable victims in one of two ways. First, it may impose harsher sanctions on those who commit crimes against vulnerable victims. Second, it may devote more resources to the identification and prosecution of individuals who attack such victims. When the latter tactic is unfeasible for some reason, equalizing protection against crime through the imposition of harsher sanctions may be the only way by which the state can provide vulnerable victims with greater protection and thus equalize their vulnerability to that of other potential victims. The distribution of protection does not require absolute equality in expected costs of crime to the victim. Vulnerability to crime is a function of myriad factors such as wealth, age, and attitude towards risk, life experience, and physical and intellectual prowess. Moreover, disparities in vulnerability to crime often depend on the precautions taken by the victim herself. The state cannot be reasonably expected to annul all disparities in the vulnerability of different potential victims of crime. This Article argues, however, that at a minimum the state ought to annul disparities that stem from certain personal characteristics of victims, such as race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation. This Article also shows that the explanatory power of the fair protection paradigm ranges far beyond the context of hate crimes. The protection can explain, for instance, why crimes directed against particularly vulnerable victims, such as the elderly and the disabled, are often punished more severely than crimes directed against less vulnerable ones. Properly understood, therefore, hate crime legislation is part of a larger scheme of providing protection against crime. Recognizing the right of victims to equal protection from crime makes it clear that hate crime legislation is consonant with the goals of criminal law. Hate crime legislation is merely one essential step towards a more egalitarian provision of protection against crime--a step which is congruous with the broader goals of the criminal law system.

Carefully edited, Tackling Disability Discrimination and Disability Hate Crime provides an intersectional account of the political, professional, and personal contexts of disablist hate crime. A di...

Between 1999 and 2001, I interviewed or surveyed nearly 300 Native Americans in seven states, in an effort to uncover insights into the prevalence, dynamics, and local contexts of hate crime as experienced by Native Americans living in remote, rural reservations. One of the predominant themes that emerged revolved around one of the most damaging effects of the ongoing racial harassment and violence that threatens them on a daily basis. What I have observed is that hate crime has become an institutionalized mechanism for establishing boundaries, both social and physical. It reinforces historical patterns of withdrawal and isolation, in short, segregation. Through violence, the threat of violence, or even through the malevolent gaze, Native Americans are daily reminded that there are places in which they are not welcome. For too many American Indians, the perception, if not the reality of ‘what’s out there’ has its intended effect of keeping people in their place.

The application of restorative justice (RJ) with hate crime remains an underdeveloped field of research, policy, and practice. This article aims to advance the understanding of these two areas of inquiry: RJ and hate crime. It is known that while most hate incidents involve minor, punishable offenses, their impact can be long lasting and detrimental to victims and affected communities. The article investigates how RJ is conceptualized within the hate crime context. The findings are based on a 3-year research program, which combined theoretical analysis, literature review, and U.K.-focused field research that was carried out through a combination of qualitative methods. These included semistructured interviews with an expert sample of practitioners and policy makers as well as focus groups with young victims and offenders of hate incidents. Direct observation was also carried out with two RJ practices.

Restorative justice has expanded its application of different types of crimes; including, but not limited to, violations such as sexual violence, domestic violence and more recently violent extremism, to name a few. The severity of these crimes, combined with the fact that restorative justice has been applied successfully to these complex offences, suggests that hate crimes should not be ruled out as potential cases. What is missing, however, is a better understanding of what makes these crimes unique, and how restorative justice can or cannot play a role in responding to the harm caused because of hate and identity-based attacks. By looking at evidence and theory from other fields, namely peacebuilding in this analysis— in addition to understanding hate and bias more generally, this article attempts to develop a theoretical framework for better understanding restorative justice in cases of anti-LGBT hate crime and briefly considers what such a framework may entail for practice.¨My starting point is that people are good, most do not mean to cause harm. There of course is a hardcore group where it truly is hate on an ideological level, and people [rightly] ask, can you change them? But there is a bigger group that needs that [RJ] meeting, to get to know the other person, and to change as a result of it. ¨ Mediator, Belgium, LetsGoByTalking project

Stark differences exist between the support and accommodation provision for tertiary students across the UK, the US and Australia. Within this framework, this study provides insights into the neighbourhood contexts where offences against Indian international students took place in the western suburbs of Melbourne. Shaped by ideas associated with social disorganisation and resource threat theories, we suggest that the concentration of large numbers of international students without adequate supports in areas characterised by high levels of disadvantage, ethnic diversity and high levels of crime contributed to the victimisation of international students. The study aims to help better understand how the neighbourhood context influences hate crime more broadly and specifically examines the neighbourhood context of international student victimisation. The study is designed to provide a nuanced understanding of the circumstances leading to attacks against international students and contributes to the international student safety and hate crime victimisation literature.

Progress in dealing with racial harassment and violence, including among social landlords, has been limited. Situating racial harassment within the current context of hate crime, this paper synthesises insights from studies into community cohesion, the sociology of racist victimisation and criminology research, and extensive qualitative research carried out in Glasgow. Issues examined include: the relationship between fear of racial harassment and locational choices; varying perceptions of the significance of racial harassment between housing organisations and ethnic minority individuals; the role of allocation policies; risk assessment and coping strategies; and the relationship between racial harassment and a wider culture of violence. It is argued that while there is scope for more effective implementation of existing policies, the deep-seated nature of the problem demands a shift in emphasis from an events-oriented approach which targets individual perpetrators towards longer-term community-based interventions.

The goals of this manuscript are two-fold. First, we provide a brief reaction to this journal's "Special Section: Reflections on the Orlando Massacre on its First Anniversary." Second, we present findings from a study on perceptions of safety among LGBTQ individuals following the Pulse shooting. These issues are discussed within the historical context of hate crimes experienced by the LGBTQ population (Herek), media coverage following the shooting (Hancock & Halderman), and the immediate reaction of LGBTQ graduate students to the event (Jackson). Our study sought to examine differences in perceptions of personal and peer safety by race/ethnicity, gender identity, and sexual orientation among a large, diverse sample of LGBTQ people. Findings from our study indicate that there were differences in perceptions of personal safety by gender identity, and differences in perceptions of peer safety by gender identity and sexual orientation. These findings also suggest that subgroups of the LGBTQ community with more marginalized gender and sexual identities (e.g., female, transgender, genderqueer, bisexual, queer respondents) perceived more concerns related to safety, on average, than subgroups with relatively more privilege (e.g., gay, male). Elevated safety concern may exacerbate multiple minority stress burden, a known driver of poor health outcomes among LGBTQ people. These findings are a call to action to healthcare providers to be well informed and trained to provide the appropriate care and counseling referrals that can address the safety-related concerns of LGBTQ individuals in the aftermath of identity-related attacks.