Neil Chakraborti

Hate Crime: Impact, Causes and Responses

This engaging and thought-provoking text provides an accessible introduction to the subject of hate crime. In a world where issues of hatred and prejudice are creating complex challenges for society and for governments, this book provides an articulate and insightful overview of how such issues relate to crime and criminal justice. It offers comprehensive coverage, including topics such as: •Racist hate crime •Religiously motivated hate crime •Homophobic crime •Gender and violence •Disablist hate crime The book considers the challenges involved in policing hate crime, as well as exploring the role of the media. Legislative developments are discussed throughout. Chapter summaries, case studies, a glossary, and advice on further reading all help to equip the reader with a clear understanding of this nuanced and controversial subject. Hate Crime is essential reading for students and academics in criminology and criminal justice.

Reconceptualizing hate crime victimization through the lens of vulnerability and ‘difference’:

This article suggests that the concepts of vulnerability and ‘difference’ should be focal points of hate crime scholarship if the values at the heart of the hate crime movement are not to be diluted. By stringently associating hate crime with particular strands of victims and sets of motivations through singular constructions of identity, criminologists have created a divisive and hierarchical approach to understanding hate crime. To counter these limitations, we propose that vulnerability and ‘difference’, rather than identity and group membership alone, should be central to investigations of hate crime. These concepts would allow for a more inclusive conceptual framework enabling hitherto overlooked and vulnerable victims of targeted violence to receive the recognition they urgently need.

'Race', Space and Place: Examining Identity and Cultures of Exclusion in Rural England

Rural village communities in England are commonly portrayed as being neighbourly and close-knit, with villagers perceived as having a deep-seated sense of local identity complemented by strong feelings of belonging. This narrow view obscures, and marginalizes, the experiences of minority ethnic residents who can often feel excluded from village life. This article assesses whether the process of ‘othering’ that works to ostracize minority ethnic households is similar to that experienced by all ‘outsiders’ who are newcomers to rural living. It is argued that the conflation of rurality with notions of Englishness and ‘whiteness’ serves to reinforce this marginalization. Indeed, the scattered distribution of minority ethnic populations in the rural means that any understanding of these ‘communities’ needs to recognize that they are not ‘communities of place’ but instead are ‘communities of shared risk’, as it is the risk of racist harassment that provides commonality, kinship and shared experience amongst these diverse populations.

England's Green and Pleasant Land? Examining Racist Prejudice in a Rural Context

Popular constructions of rural England have perpetuated images of idyllic, problem-free environments that have largely masked the process of ‘othering’ that works to marginalize particular groups within rural society. Drawing on the findings of studies conducted in two rural English counties, Chakraborti and Garland assert that racist prejudice is very much part of the reality of rural living for minority ethnic groups whose presence in the countryside tends to be overlooked. They discuss the perceptions of established white rural communities and those of the victims of racial harassment to illustrate the disturbing nature, extent and impact of racism in rural areas, and suggest that the enduring ‘invisibility’ of the problem is compounded both by the under-reporting of such racist incidents and the reluctance of agencies to acknowledge the needs of minority ethnic groups in the countryside. Consequently, racist prejudice in the rural context will only be recognized as a significant issue through a greater appreciation of the diverse complexity of rural space, and the abandonment of singular, outdated notions of rurality.

Islamophobia, victimisation and the veil

The file associated with this record is under permanent embargo. The authors have chosen to make Chapter 2 of this publication Open Access following a mandatory 36-month embargo period. It can be found at http://hdl.handle.net/2381/33041

Beyond ‘Passive Apartheid’? Developing Policy and Research Agendas on Rural Racism in Britain

Although problems facing minority ethnic households in rural areas have been largely overlooked within studies of ‘race’ and racism, an emerging body of research has begun to challenge ‘problem-free’ constructions of the countryside by illustrating the pervasiveness of racialised ‘othering’ in rural environments. In the context of a rapidly expanding minority ethnic rural population, images of the English countrysides ‘white landscape’ will bear increasingly less resonance as the make-up of rural towns and villages continues to diversify over time. This article outlines some of the key challenges facing researchers and policy-makers seeking to address problems of rural racism. It illustrates the manner in which rural minority ethnic households’ vulnerability is exacerbated by the enduring appeal of idyllicised [mis]constructions of rurality and the ineffectiveness of agency responses to racist victimisation, and explores ways of developing sustainable improvements to policy, research and conceptual frameworks in the context of the increasing diversification of rural space.

The veil under attack: Gendered dimensions of Islamophobic victimization

In the current climate, the veil is the key visual symbol of Islam. The veiled female body is central in the construction of discourses on the difference of the Muslim as ‘other’ with the non-Muslim ‘self’. The effect is that the multiple meanings of the veil are erased, and only one stands out: the veil as a symbol of gender inequality. This article explores the ways in which the visibility of the veil in the public gaze marks its wearers as particularly vulnerable to expressions of Islamophobia in a non-Muslim country such as the United Kingdom. Whilst the concept of Islamophobia is often understood in gender-neutral ways, evidence suggests that there are gendered dimensions to manifestations of Islamophobia in the public sphere. Stereotypes about veiled women’s subservience coupled with the assumption that their Muslim identity cannot be mistaken, denied or concealed, renders veiled women ‘ideal subjects’ against whom to enact anti-Muslim hostility. For victims, their families and the wider Muslim community, Islamophobic victimization can have significant and ongoing consequences. The article concludes that increased awareness of the gendered facets of Islamophobia unveils the targeted – yet hidden, often invisible – victimization of veiled Muslim women in public, as this victimization tends to fall under the criminal justice ‘radar’.

Divided by a common concept? Assessing the implications of different conceptualizations of hate crime in the European Union

In recent years the European Union (EU) has witnessed rising levels of hate crime. However, although there have been a number of legislative and other policy initiatives introduced across the EU to combat such offences, these have developed in a piecemeal and sometimes half-hearted fashion. This article outlines the difficulties evident in theorizing hate crime and how these problems have been reflected in the divergent ways that hate crime legislation has developed across the EU. It argues that an approach to combating hate crime based on human rights, which is endorsed by many EU institutions, has failed to tackle the problem effectively and has resulted in the uneven protection of hate crime victim groups. By utilizing an individual rather than a group-based human rights approach, the damaging nature and effect of such ‘targeted victimization’ upon all hate crime victims can be better understood and addressed.

Recognising and Responding to Victims of Rural Racism

In recent decades policy-makers and academics have afforded increasing levels of recognition to the needs of victims of crime. However, much of this ‘new’ focus has centred upon urban environments, with only limited attention given to rural crime and victimisation. Significantly, even within the small body of rural-based work, the concerns of victims of racist harassment have been largely neglected. This article seeks to redress this situation by examining and contextualising issues of racist victimisation in the rural arena. Drawing from the authors’ own research conducted across different rural locales in the UK over a four-year period, it is argued here that this victimisation is an ongoing process rather than a collection of distinct, one-off events. Whilst ‘low-level’ incidents of harassment, such as verbal abuse, are worryingly commonplace, ‘high-level’ forms, such as criminal damage or physical assault, also feature regularly in the lived experiences of many rural minority ethnic households. These can leave the recipient feeling frightened, depressed, isolated and anxious, and these emotions may be exacerbated by ineffective responses from agencies that do not grasp the significance or implications of racist victimisation in the countryside. It is suggested that agencies need to adopt a range of long-term, sustainable initiatives that recognise the unique characteristics of rural environments, as well as the heterogeneity of the processes and experiences of victimisation itself, if the situation for victims of racism is to be improved.

Re-Thinking Hate Crime Fresh Challenges for Policy and Practice

Hate crime has become an increasingly familiar term in recent times as the harms associated with acts of bigotry and prejudice continue to pose complex challenges for societies across the world. However, despite the greater recognition now afforded to hate crimes by scholars, policy makers and law enforcers, uncertainty continues to cloud the scope and legitimacy of existing policy frameworks. This article draws from an emerging body of inter-disciplinary scholarship and empirical research to highlight a series of important realities about hate crime victimization and perpetration that tend to remain peripheral to the process of policy formation. It suggests that the focus on particular strands of victims and particular sets of motivations has overshadowed a range of significant issues, including the experiences of “marginal” groups of victims, and the way in which identity characteristics intersect with one another—and with other situational factors and context—to leave some targets of hate crime especially vulnerable. The article calls for a more fluid and multi-layered approach to policy formation, which engages with these realities, and which maximizes the real-life value of hate crime discourse.