Hate Crime: Impact, Causes and Responses

Hate crime is a particularly pernicious form of criminal behaviour that has significant impacts upon victims, their families and wider communities. In this substantially revised and updated edition the book examines the nature, extent and harms of hate crime, and the effectiveness of criminal justice responses to it. It covers racist, religiously motivated, homophobic, disablist and transphobic hate crime, as well as other forms of targeted victimisation such as gendered hostility, elder abuse, attacks upon alternative subcultures and violence against sex workers and the homeless. The book also assesses the complexities and controversies surrounding hate crime legislation and policy-making, as well as the continuing challenges associated with the policing of hate.

The second edition features expanded discussions of international perspectives and contemporary topics such as online hate and cyberbullying, as well as numerous case studies covering issues such as lone wolf extremists, Islamophobia, asylum seekers and the far right. The book contains a range of links to online material that accompany the extensive lists of further reading in each chapter. 

Neil Chakraborti is a Professor of Criminology at the University of Leicester, Director of the Leicester Centre for Hate Studies and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Ontario. He has published widely within the field of hate crime, and his books include Hate Crime: Impact, Causes and Responses (Sage, 2^nd edition 2015; 1^st edition 2009 with Jon Garland) Responding to Hate Crime: The Case for Connecting Policy and Research (2014, with Jon Garland); Islamophobia, Victimisation and the Veil (2014 with Irene Zempi); Hate Crime: Concepts, Policy, Future Directions (2010); and Rural Racism (2004 with Jon Garland).

Neil conducts ongoing research in the field of hate studies, and was recently commissioned by the Equality and Human Rights Commission to investigate problems of under-reporting amongst lesbian, gay, bi and trans victims of hate crime. Prior to this he has led a series of funded research projects, including the ESRC-funded Leicester Hate Crime Project and a range of police- and local authority-funded studies of racism, victimisation and targeted hostility. In 2012 he was appointed as a Commissioner on the first-ever inquiry into sex in prisons within England and Wales, established by the Howard League for Penal Reform. He sits on the editorial boards of the British Journal of Criminology and Palgrave Communications, and is Chair of Research on the Board of Trustees for the Howard League for Penal Reform.

Jon Garland is a Reader in Criminology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey. His main areas of research are in the fields of hate crime, rural racism, community and identity, policing and victimisation. He has just finished working on the Leicester Hate Crime Project, a two-year hate crime victimisation study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. Prior to this he has been awarded research grants from the Home Office (to evaluate police diversity training); Leicester City Council (to conduct an audit of the local African Caribbean community); the European Union (to examine the issue of racism in football); and Greater Manchester Police (to evaluate police diversity training). He has also undertaken a number of projects examining the issue of rural racism, funded by three rural constabularies (Suffolk, Northamptonshire and Warwickshire) and associated partners.

Jon has published six books: Racism and Anti-racism in Football (with Mike Rowe); The Future of Football (with Mike Rowe and Dominic Malcolm), Youth Culture, Popular Music and the End of ‘Consensus’ (with the Subcultures Network), and (all with Neil Chakraborti) Rural Racism, Responding to Hate Crime: The Case for Connecting Policy and Research, and Hate Crime: Impact, Causes, and Consequences (now onto its second edition). He has also had numerous journal articles and reports published on issues of racism, the far-right, hate crime, policing, cultural criminology, and identity. He is on the Editorial Board of Law, Crime, Justice and Society and the Editorial Advisory Board of Crime Prevention and Community Safety: An International Journal.