Barbara Perry

'We are all vulnerable' The in-terrorem effects of hate crimes

Ironically, while scholars and policy-makers have long referred to hate crime as a ‘message crime’, the assumption that those beyond the immediate victim are likewise intimidated by the violence has gone untested. Grounded in a recent study of the community impacts of hate crime, we offer some insights into these in terrorem effects of hate crime. We present here some of our qualitative findings. Interestingly, our findings suggest that, in many ways, awareness of violence directed toward another within an identifiable target group yields strikingly similar patterns of emotional and behavioural responses among vicarious victims. They, too, note a complex syndrome of reactions, including shock, anger, fear/vulnerability, inferiority, and a sense of the normativity of violence. And, like the proximal victim, the distal victims often engage in subsequent behavioural shifts, such as changing patterns of social interaction. On a positive note, there is also some evidence that these reactions can culminate not in withdrawal, but in the potential for community mobilization.

Defending the Color Line Racially and Ethnically Motivated Hate Crime

Drawing on structured action theory, the author examines the ways in which racially and ethnically motivated hate crime emerges as a forceful means of constructing identity and difference within the institutional settings of culture, labor, sexuality, and power. The author summarizes the trends in racially and ethnically motivated violence nationwide and then explores hate crimes as a readily available means of doing difference. The author argues that racially motivated violence is not an aberration associated with a lunatic or extremist fringe. Instead, it is a normative means of asserting racial identity relative to the victimized other; it is an enactment—of the racism that allocates privilege along racial lines.

Cyberhate: the globalization of hate

Increasingly, scholars are examining the ways in which the Internet allows the hate movement to retrench and reinvent itself as a viable collective. The many electronic means available to the movement – blogs, newsgroups, ’zines, etc. – allow an ease of communication and dissemination of their views never before possible. While there are obvious points of convergence across the various Klan groups, or identity churches, or skinhead organizations, the hate movement has historically been varied and, in fact, fractured. Internet communication facilitates the creation of the collective identity that is so important to movement cohesiveness. Clearly, this has strengthened the domestic presence of these groups in countries like the United States, Germany and Sweden. Yet relatively less attention has been paid to the way in which the Web facilitates the consolidation of a global movement. Internet communication knows no national boundaries. Consequently, it allows the hate movement to extend its collective identity internationally, thereby facilitating a potential ‘global racist subculture’. It is this process that we seek to uncover in this paper, with an eye to thinking about ways to intervene so as to weaken the impact.

“Button-Down Terror”: The Metamorphosis of the Hate Movement

Abstract This paper explores the extent to which the hate movement in the United States has taken on a new, modern face. The strength of the contemporary hate movement is grounded in its ability to repackage its message in ways that make it more palatable, and in its ability to exploit the points of intersection between itself and prevailing ideological canons. In short, the hate movement is attempting to move itself into the mainstream of United States culture and politics. I conclude by arguing that antiracist and antiviolence organizations must continue to confront hate groups through legal challenges, monitoring, and education.

‘There’s just places ya’ don’t wanna go’: the segregating impact of hate crime against Native Americans

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.

Outside Looking In: The Community Impacts of Anti-Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Hate Crime

Hate crime scholars have long argued that the harms of hate crime extend beyond the immediate victim to negatively impact the victim’s reference community. However, this assertion is speculative and in need of empirical support. Utilizing focus group data from 15 people who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or pansexual, this pilot study explored the extent to which the harms of anti-LGB hate crime spread beyond the immediate victim to impact nonvictims in the LGB community. The findings suggest that anti-LGB hate violence can have profound and negative effects on the psychological and emotional well-being of nonvictims who are LGB and may result in dramatic behavioral change as well. The findings also indicate that hate violence negatively affected participants’ decisions to disclose their sexual orientation to others. On a more positive note, however, awareness of such violence may also mobilize some people within the LGB community.

‘No biggie’: The denial of oppression on campus

Shifts in the demographics in North American colleges and universities over the past decades have created much more diverse and multiethnic campuses. Some praise these trends for creating more dynamic environments. However, not all are happy with the ‘infiltration’ of traditionally white, male enclaves, such that newcomers are met with hostility, even violence. In our campus hate crime study conducted at adjoining college and university campuses in Ontario, we found widespread awareness that minority students were frequent victims of hate crime and discrimination. In an interesting paradox, however, this did not translate into a parallel awareness that racism, or sexism, or homophobia were problems for the campus in question. In other words, while students may observe racist behaviour, they do not ‘see’ it — that is, they do not register the structured embeddedness of campus oppression.

Identity and Hate Crime on Canadian Campuses

Canadian college and university campuses are commonly thought of as places that foster tolerance and diversity. However, these institutions are also sites where students are victimized by hate crimes. The purpose of this study is to document the degree to which Canadian students are victimized by hate crimes. This article presents observations on what is, to my knowledge, the first Canadian survey of hate crime motivated by race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and disability on Canadian college and university campuses. The main objective of this study was to conduct a random sample survey of the incidents and prevalence of hate crime on two Canadian campuses: one a college and another a university. The author argues that hate crime plays an important role in challenging the increasing presence and visibility of women, the lestbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities, and visible minorities on Canadian campuses.

Counting – and Countering – Hate Crime in Europe

Over the past decade, the European Union has experienced unprecedented demographic shifts, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Contemporary migration patterns, as well as the increased visibility and activism of such communities, people with disabilities, and LGBT individuals, have arguably enhanced the dynamism and diversity of host countries. However, these same patterns have engendered a perception of threat that has all too often manifest itself in violence directed toward the Other. As nations attempt to negotiate the place of these new voices, they must also attend to the behaviours which would otherwise continue to silence them. Consequently, the measurement and regulation of hate crime have become important components of the public agenda around intolerance and xenophobia. The persistence of hate crime poses both immediate and secondary effects. Research suggests that first and foremost among the impacts on the individual is the physical harm: bias motivated crimes are often characterized by extreme brutality.1 Additionally, the empirical findings in studies of the emotional, psychological, and behavioural impact of hate crime are beginning to establish a solid pattern of more severe impact on bias crime victims, as compared to non-bias victims.2 In addition, however, many scholars point to the “fact” that hate crimes are “message crimes” that emit a distinct warning to all members of the victim’s

Uneasy Alliances: A Look at the Right-Wing Extremist Movement in Canada

ABSTRACT Despite the Canadian Security Intelligence Services recent concern with the growing threat from right-wing extremists nationwide, we have little contemporary scholarship on the far right movement in Canada and fewer attempts to systematically analyze their ideologies and activities. Drawing on a three-year study involving interviews with Canadian law enforcement officials, community organizations, and right-wing activists, as well as analyses of open source intelligence, this article examines the endogenous factors that facilitate and inhibit the right-wing extremist movement in Canada. Findings suggest that strengths and weaknesses of the groups themselves can be exploited as a means of debilitating them.