Hate Crime: Cause and Effect

A research synthesis

October 2018
 Hate Crime: Cause and Effect

Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 3
What is hate crime? ................................................................................................................... 3
Causes and motivations ............................................................................................................. 4
Similarities and differences between different types of hate crime ......................................... 5
Knowledge gaps ......................................................................................................................... 5
Incidence and awareness of hate crime .................................................................................... 6
Effects of hate crime .................................................................................................................. 6
Seeking justice............................................................................................................................ 7
Community................................................................................................................................. 8
Implications for supporting targeted communities ................................................................... 8

This synthesis was written by EDF, drawing on:

Walters, M.A., Brown, R. and Wiedlitzka, S. (2016). Research Report 102:

Causes and motivations of hate crime. Equality and Human Rights
Commission: Manchester.

Paterson, J. L., Walters, M.A., Brown, R. and Fearn, H. (2018). The Sussex
Hate Crime Project: Final Report. University of Sussex: Brighton.

We are grateful for the support of the Aziz Foundation.

The Equality and Diversity Forum (EDF) is the national network of

organisations working for equality and human rights across the UK.

Registered charity number: 1135357

Company number: 06464749
www.edf.org.uk
 Hate Crime: Cause and Effect

Introduction

This synthesis aims to provide a clear and accessible summary of two recent research
reports on the causes and impacts of hate crime to support people seeking to influence or
develop policy.

It brings together the key findings and recommendations of two ground-breaking studies
into hate crime, Causes and motivations of hate crime, and the Sussex Hate Crime Project
final report.

Causes and motivations of hate crime (CMHC) was funded and published by the Equality
and Human Rights Commission in 2016 and provides an overview of the current evidence
on hate crime causation and perpetrator motivation. The authors are Prof. Mark A. Walters
and Prof. Rupert Brown, with Susann Wiedlitzka, from the University of Sussex.

CMHC brings together for the first time evidence and emerging insights from the law,
policy and social science on the causes and perpetration of hate crime. It aims to inform
criminal justice agencies (or those working to influence them) in their approach and use of
preventative measures.

Sussex Hate Crime Project (SHCP) was a five year research project, funded by the
Leverhulme Trust, to examine the indirect impacts of hate crimes – how hate attacks on
members of a community affect the thoughts, emotions and behaviours of other members
of that community. It focuses on hate crimes targeted against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Trans (LGB&T) and Muslim communities.

SHCP provides, for the first time, a comprehensive empirical basis for understanding what
the effects are and why they are likely to occur.

The final report, published in 2018, summarises the findings of the project’s 20 studies,
which used a variety of different research methods, including questionnaire surveys,
individual interviews and social psychological experiments. The authors are Dr Jenny
Paterson, Prof. Mark A. Walters, Prof. Rupert Brown and Dr Harriet Fearn, from the
University of Sussex.

What is hate crime?

Both reports use the criminal justice system’s agreed working definition of hate crime: ‘any
criminal offence which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a
hostility or prejudice…’ for England and Wales. CMHC also references the Scottish criminal
justice system’s definition: ‘crime motivated by malice or ill will towards a social group’.

All three countries also record ‘hate incidents’ which are defined as ‘[a]ny non-crime
incident which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility
or prejudice…’ Hate incidents may result in severe harms, and/or escalate over protracted
periods of time into more serious forms of emotional, sexual and/or physical abuse.
 Hate Crime: Cause and Effect

Responding to hate incidents therefore enables law enforcement agencies to capture

escalation, trends and repeat incidents.

The reports note the five officially protected characteristics (race, religion, disability, sexual
orientation and transgender) that are monitored by the police as ‘strands’ of hate crime and
incidents.

There is no single type of hate crime. Some of the most common types of hate crime
involve:
 incidents that occur during an ongoing local conflict (for example, between
neighbours) that has escalated over time;
 incidents that form part of a targeted campaign of abuse directed against certain
individuals within a neighbourhood; or
 incidents that occur in public spaces and are perpetrated by individuals who feel
somehow aggrieved by the victim – sometimes occurring during commercial
transactions or on public transport.

Causes and motivations

The CMHC report found that a person who commits a ‘hate crime’ need not actually be
motivated by hatred for his or her victim, but rather it is his or her expression of prejudice or
bias against the victim’s (presumed) group membership that more properly characterises
such crimes.

Perpetrators of hate crimes are not always motivated by a single type of prejudice or hatred
but can be influenced by a combination of different prejudices.

There is no single type of hate crime perpetrator. Practitioners need to appreciate that
situational factors (that is, location and victim–perpetrator relationships) may differ
depending on the type of offence (for example, verbal abuse, harassment etc.) and the type
of hate-motivation (for example, homophobic, disablist etc.).

Hate crimes may also be the product of our social environments. Some researchers assert
that hate crimes are more likely to occur where society is structured in such a way as to
advantage certain identity characteristics over others (for example, white, male,
heterosexual). Systemic discrimination, typically codified into operating procedures,
policies or laws, may give rise to an environment where perpetrators feel a sense of
impunity when victimising certain minority group members.

Perpetrators of hate crime can be motivated by a variety of different factors. Some

research (from the US) suggests that there are four ‘types’ of perpetrators, including: thrill
seekers (those motivated by a thrill and excitement); defensive (those motivated by a
desire to protect their territory); retaliators (those who act in retaliation for a perceived
attack against their own group); and mission (perpetrators who make it their mission in life
to eradicate ‘difference’).
 Hate Crime: Cause and Effect

Some evidence within social psychology suggests that perpetrators may be influenced by
their perception that certain groups pose a threat to them. These threats can be divided
into ‘realistic threats’ – such as perceived competition over jobs, housing and other
resources, and physical harm to themselves or others – and ‘symbolic threats’ which are
concerned with the threat posed to people’s values and social norms.

Cyber hate is a growing phenomenon which, reporting figures suggest, vastly outnumbers
offline hate crime. There is some research suggesting that perpetrators of cyber hate crime
have similar motivations to those who act offline.

Similarities and differences between different types of hate crime

Though there are some dissimilarities between types of hate crime, the researchers suggest
that most, if not all, hate crimes are linked by perceptions of threat. Threats can be linked
to economic stability, access to social or state resources, people’s sense of safety in society,
and/or values and social norms.

Some differences in the nature and dynamics of hate crime can be observed across the
protected strands. Research suggests that both anti-Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual (LGB) and
transphobic hate crime can involve a greater propensity towards physical violence.
Disability hate crime evidence shows high levels of sexual violence and property offences.
Certain trigger events (such as global terrorist attacks) have been linked to sharp rises in
anti-religious hate crime.

Knowledge gaps

The CMHC report recommends the need for further work between researchers, civil society
organisations and practitioners to fill the gaps in evidence that would enable the
development of an effective strategy for preventing hate crime.

Specifically, it highlights the need:

1. For further research into why and how people commit hate crime, including the
structural factors that cause hate crime.

2. To properly scrutinise perceptions of threat so that we can better understand how

people’s fears and prejudices about others can be effectively addressed.

3. To explore why many people who feel animosity towards certain groups choose not
to offend. This reverse perspective may help to elucidate the key factors that help to
deter people from hate-based criminality.

4. To understand more about the relationships between people in the groups who
commit a hate crime, and when and how these lead to the group being more likely
to commit a hate incident or crime.
 Hate Crime: Cause and Effect

5. The cause of hate crimes committed across minority groups.

6. The extent and nature of hate crimes that are committed against individuals in the
same minority group.

7. The role of the internet (including social media/blogs/traditional media) in spreading

hate.

Incidence and awareness of hate crime

The SHCP report found that respondents were likely to have been victimised in a hate
crime/incident in the past 3 years: 72% of LGB&T respondents and 71% of Muslim
respondents had been victims.

Respondents were likely to know someone else who had been victimised in a hate
crime/incident in the past 3 years: 87% of LGB&T respondents and 83% of Muslim
respondents knew another victim.

Experiences of hate crime via the media and online were also extremely common: 83% of
LGB&T respondents and 86% of Muslim respondents had been directly targeted online.
86% of LGB&T respondents and 88% of Muslim respondents knew someone who had been
targeted online. 90% of LGB&T respondents had seen at least one hate crime reported in
the media in the past 3 years.

Effects of hate crime

The report found that the indirect experiences of both anti-LGB&T and anti-
Muslim/Islamophobic hate crime are similar to those of direct experiences. Hate crimes
spread fear and anger throughout communities that impact upon people’s actions and their
perceptions of the criminal justice system. Individuals themselves do not have to be
targeted to be impacted: simply knowing someone who has been victimised is sufficient to
cause these effects. Hate crimes have the potential to cause injury and distress both at the
individual and community level. They affect individuals’ emotional wellbeing -
predominantly causing anger and anxiety. These emotions are linked to certain behavioural
responses, both proactive and avoidant.

Specifically, it found that:

Hate crimes, whether experienced directly, indirectly, through the media, in person or
online were consistently linked to:
 increased feelings of vulnerability, anxiety, anger, and sometimes shame; and
 being more security conscious, avoidant, and more active within the community.
 Hate Crime: Cause and Effect

Hate crime victims received more empathy than non-hate crime victims and sometimes
were blamed more than non-hate crime victims.

The indirect effects of hate crimes can be described as a process:

 hate crimes increase feelings of vulnerability and empathy;

 feelings of vulnerability and empathy then increase emotional reactions (anger,
anxiety, shame); and
 these emotional reactions motivate specific behavioural responses:
 anger leads to pro-active behaviours and less avoidance
 anxiety leads to avoidance and security concerns
 shame, although not always felt strongly, is linked to avoidance, pro-active
behaviours, security concerns, and uniquely to retaliation.

Seeking justice

Perceptions of the criminal justice system were generally negative – especially when people
had indirect experiences of hate crimes.

Around a quarter of respondents had contacted the police about a hate crime, while less
than 10% had experience with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) about a hate crime.

 Contact with the police was associated with more negative perceptions for Muslim
respondents.
 Contact with the CPS did not significantly affect perceptions about this institution.

Respondents were unlikely to report verbal or online abuse but were very likely to report
acts of vandalism and assault to the police.

Younger participants and those less identified with their community were less likely to
report hate crimes to the police.

Some participants would not report hate crimes because they felt that it would not help
and that they may experience secondary victimisation by the police.

61% of LGB&T and Muslim participants (including those with both direct and indirect
experience of hate crime) preferred restorative justice (RJ) as a criminal justice response to
hate crimes (i.e. dialogue focused on repairing harm) rather than an enhanced prison
sentence. LGB&T participants perceived RJ to be more beneficial to the victim and the
offender and were more satisfied with RJ compared to an enhanced sentence.
 Hate Crime: Cause and Effect

Community

The more people identified with their community, the angrier they felt about hate crimes
and the more they wanted to get involved in combating the harms of hate. Interviews
revealed that LGB&T and Muslim people felt connected to their communities at three
levels: locally, nationally and globally.

Interview participants felt greater levels of anger and anxiety about hate crimes committed
in their local neighbourhood. Some interview participants felt connected to other LGB&T
and Muslim people globally through a sense of “shared suffering”.

Interview participants felt angry about hate crimes against other groups but felt less
vulnerable and anxious about these compared with hate crimes against their own
community.

Implications for supporting targeted communities

The research identified the need:

1. For agencies to have a more comprehensive understanding of the emotions hate

crime cause and their effects on behaviours, and to implement measures that
carefully aim to reduce targeted communities’ perceptions of threat and to alleviate
individuals’ feelings of anger and anxiety, while also reducing individuals’ need to
avoid certain locations or to change their appearance.

2. To treat hate crimes as a distinct type of offending, which requires a specific

legislative response, including the use and extension of hate crime legislation that
treats such crimes more seriously than other offences.

3. For measures that specifically aim to address community harms during the criminal
justice process, e.g., via the use of Community Impact Statements during criminal
trials, to more fully reflect the harms that hate crimes cause.

4. To increase confidence in the police to counter negative experiences and fears of

prejudice towards LGB&T and Muslim communities.

5. To effectively communicate to LGB&T and Muslim communities the policies,

practices and support measures that are already in place. For example, there was
evidence to suggest that where individuals made use of specially trained officers, or
came into contact with an LGB&T liaison officer (for example), they were very
satisfied with the way they were treated.