Hate Crime

Hate crimes are directed at victims because of their affiliation with a group against which the offenders have chosen to take action. Not only do victims suffer from direct injuries, they must also come to terms with the deep malice and bias that motivated the crime. These articles address restorative responses.

Swain, Jennifer E and McConnell, Stephen C. Victim-Offender Mediation with Adolescents Who Commit Hate Crimes: In recent years, the number of reported hate crimes has continued to rise steadily. The majority of these offenses is motivated by racial prejudice and is typically committed by a small, loosely associated group of adolescent offenders. Hate crimes represent offenses that exert a uniquely detrimental impact on the individual victim, members of the targeted group and larger society. In addition to the physical and material losses that may occur as the result of a hate crime, these offenses are often psychologically devastating, terrorizing individuals and communities while simultaneously tearing at the foundation of intergroup relationships. In order to address this issue, new approaches to responding to hate crime have been developed, including penalty-enhancement strategies and educational programming for perpetrators. However, the efficacy of the proposed approaches in modifying the attitudes and behaviors of perpetrators is questionable. Of equal importance, many of these programs do little or nothing to address the needs of victims. Tin this paper, victim-offender mediation is explored as a strategy for intervening with adolescent offenders who commit racially motivated hate crimes and the victims of these offenses. It is hypothesized that in comparison to the current responses to hate crimes, this approach will offer greater benefits for victims, offenders, and larger society, both in the short and long term. (author's abstract).
Wessler, Stephen L. Hate Crimes and Bias-Motivated Harassment on Campus: A number of states and the federal government in the United States have adopted hate crime statutes in the last decade or so. While there are various ways of stipulating what constitutes a hate crime in the statutes, notes Stephen Wessler, in general a hate crime can be defined as a criminal offense against a person or property where the offender is motivated by bias against another person’s race, religion, ethnic origin, gender, age, disability, or sexual orientation. Institutions of higher education are not immune from the commission of hate crimes. In this chapter Wessler examines hate crimes in college and university settings. He examines types of hate crimes and their pervasiveness on campuses, bias-motivated harassment, and the impact of hate crimes and incidents of bias. This leads to his identification of effective responses to and prevention of such problems, with respect to both offenders and victims.
Judicial system fails in hate crime: from the article by Ian Gillespie in the London Free Press: ....How do you respond when you're targeted simply because you're you? That's a hate crime -- when someone is victimized because of their race, religion, ethnic origin, sexual orientation or physical and mental abilities. And while any crime is awful and traumatic for its victims, hate crimes are particularly repugnant because they're attacks against the essence of a person. That's why last week's court decision involving an attack upon a gay man is so lamentable.
Whitlock, katherine. In a time of broken bones: A call to dialogue on hate violence and the limitations of hate crimes legislation: As defined by the first hate crimes laws, such crimes consist of harmful actions (e.g., harassment, intimidation, violence, and murder) perpetrated against another person because of that person's race, national origin, or religion. Currently, many advocate the extension of hate crime legislation to include harmful acts against people identified in terms of categories such as gender, sexual preference, and disabilities. Would the extension of hate crime legislation be a good thing? As stated in this paper, when harm is done to another on the basis of hatred for some distinguishing characteristic, it is right to seek justice in response. Yet, Katherine Whitlock asks, what is justice in this context? Whitlock casts a vision of 'healing justice' rooted in resistance to wrongdoing but oriented toward transformation and restoration rather than more extensive and severe punishment. In this paper she presents a careful challenge to consider the limitations and unintended harmful consequences of many hate laws as currently formulated.
Shenk, Alyssa. Victim-Offender Mediation: The Road to Repairing Hate Crime Injustice.: Shenk begins this essay with the observation that historically the American criminal justice system – retributive in character, and focused on crime as a violation of law – has ignored the needs of the victim of crime and failed to restore the victim’s losses. In recent years there has been a trend to bring the needs of the victim to the forefront of the justice system. This, Shenk remarks, is symbolic of a shift toward restorative justice with the focus on the needs of victims. Victim-offender mediation has emerged as the best-known and effective means of practicing restorative justice, yet it has largely been limited to property crimes and minor assaults. Recently, there has been some development to employ victim-offender mediation to more severe, violent crimes. With all of this in view, Shenk contends for the expansion of restorative justice, and specifically the use of victim-offender mediation, to address hate crimes.
Strobl, Staci and Volpe, Maria R.. Restorative justice responses to post-September 11 hate crimes: Potential and challenges.: This article focuses on the extent to which victim-offender mediation was utilized by restorative justice practitioners in response to anti-Arab and anti-Muslim harassment and other September 11-related hate crimes. Specific attention was given to the disparity between the advocacy for victim-offender mediation in these incidents and its actual use, and the lessons to be learned from restorative justice efforts after September 11. (author's abstract)
Ray, Larry and Dixon, Liz. Current issues and developments in race hate crime.: This article considers the ‘hate agenda’ as a model for interventions targeted at race hate crime. The authors consider current initiatives in different agencies and make some comparisons between the American and British experience.
Sapir, Brian . Healing a Fractured Community: The Use of Community Sentencing Circles in Response to Hate Crimes: "Within the Restorative Justice community of the United States, circle sentencing (also known as community circles, peacemaking circles, or healing circles ) has evolved since the early 1990's as an effective way of healing the harm that the offender's crime has done to the community, as well as getting to the root of the problems which may have contributed to the offender's actions in the first place. ... The victim is given an opportunity to voice his or her fear and rage at being victimized; the victim also has a chance to hear the offender's story and gain a better understanding of why the crime occurred; and lastly the victim walks away from the situation with reparations and a sense of having been involved in the justice process and an overall feeling of closure. ... Americans must learn from the experiences of post September 11 not only to prepare for and prevent such crimes, but also to provide victims and communities with the appropriate tools to handle the fear and anger resulting from such victimization. ... The exclusion of the community from the healing process by Victim-Offender Mediation and other Restorative Justice programs makes Sentencing Circles the ideal technique to be used in hate crime cases. ... While Circles have primarily dealt with non-violent offenses, it is a stark reality that hate crimes manifest themselves in a spectrum of offenses including the ultra-violent." (Excerpt from Author)
Pugh, Catherine. What do you get when you add Megan Williams to Matthew Sheppard and victim-offender mediation? A hate crime law that prosecutors will actually want to use.: Part II details the most significant obstacle undermining pursuit of hate crimes, proving motive. Part III addresses the fissure between society’s needs and a prosecutor’s objectives when it comes to hate crimes pursuit. Further, this section examines shortcomings of society’s one-dimensional approach to punishing hate crimes. Part IV considers the current federal hate crimes laws, followed by a brief comparison between current and proposed law. This section concludes with a discussion on how proposed law can potentially overcome state obstacles. Part V considers an adjustment to proposed laws. That is, it suggests that Congress incorporate VOM into hate crimes penalties by (1) amending current legislation to include public funding for departments of corrections VOM programs; and, (2) developing guidelines and procedures for the Bureau of Prisons to accommodate VOM use within the federal penal system. This comment evaluates the benefits of VOM from three perspectives: first, how folding VOM into the judicial process can potentially entice prosecutors to pursue hate crimes because in at least cases of non-violent hate, a conviction is assured; next, how the restorative justice approach can further cure the actual damage from both non- and severely-violent hate crimes; and finally, how offender confrontation offers more of a long-term cure than the current incarceration-only approach. Finally, in Part VI, we return to Megan Williams and West Virginia State Prosecutor Brian Abrahams, and consider their circumstances as a way to model the question of hate crimes management for the larger legal community and general public. (excerpt)
Why I don't support hate crime legislation: Jos, writing at feministing.com: Community based forms of restorative justice that empower those who are targeted by violence and work to eradicate the bigotry that leads to such crimes in the first place are a much more valuable change to work toward than empowering our current criminal justice system even more. Violence targeted at members of oppressed communities must be recognized and addressed, but harsher prison sentences are not the way.

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The majority of these offenses is motivated by racial prejudice and is typically committed by a small, loosely associated group of adolescent offenders. Hate crimes represent offenses that exert a uniquely detrimental impact on the individual victim, members of the targeted group and larger society. In addition to the physical and material losses that may occur as the result of a hate crime, these offenses are often psychologically devastating, terrorizing individuals and communities while simultaneously tearing at the foundation of intergroup relationships. In order to address this issue, new approaches to responding to hate crime have been developed, including penalty-enhancement strategies and educational programming for perpetrators. However, the efficacy of the proposed approaches in modifying the attitudes and behaviors of perpetrators is questionable. Of equal importance, many of these programs do little or nothing to address the needs of victims. Tin this paper, victim-offender mediation is explored as a strategy for intervening with adolescent offenders who commit racially motivated hate crimes and the victims of these offenses. It is hypothesized that in comparison to the current responses to hate crimes, this approach will offer greater benefits for victims, offenders, and larger society, both in the short and long term. (author's abstract). Wessler, Stephen L. Hate Crimes and Bias-Motivated Harassment on Campus A number of states and the federal government in the United States have adopted hate crime statutes in the last decade or so. While there are various ways of stipulating what constitutes a hate crime in the statutes, notes Stephen Wessler, in general a hate crime can be defined as a criminal offense against a person or property where the offender is motivated by bias against another person’s race, religion, ethnic origin, gender, age, disability, or sexual orientation. Institutions of higher education are not immune from the commission of hate crimes. In this chapter Wessler examines hate crimes in college and university settings. He examines types of hate crimes and their pervasiveness on campuses, bias-motivated harassment, and the impact of hate crimes and incidents of bias. This leads to his identification of effective responses to and prevention of such problems, with respect to both offenders and victims. Judicial system fails in hate crime from the article by Ian Gillespie in the London Free Press: ....How do you respond when you're targeted simply because you're you? That's a hate crime -- when someone is victimized because of their race, religion, ethnic origin, sexual orientation or physical and mental abilities. And while any crime is awful and traumatic for its victims, hate crimes are particularly repugnant because they're attacks against the essence of a person. That's why last week's court decision involving an attack upon a gay man is so lamentable. Whitlock, katherine. In a time of broken bones: A call to dialogue on hate violence and the limitations of hate crimes legislation As defined by the first hate crimes laws, such crimes consist of harmful actions (e.g., harassment, intimidation, violence, and murder) perpetrated against another person because of that person's race, national origin, or religion. Currently, many advocate the extension of hate crime legislation to include harmful acts against people identified in terms of categories such as gender, sexual preference, and disabilities. Would the extension of hate crime legislation be a good thing? As stated in this paper, when harm is done to another on the basis of hatred for some distinguishing characteristic, it is right to seek justice in response. Yet, Katherine Whitlock asks, what is justice in this context? Whitlock casts a vision of 'healing justice' rooted in resistance to wrongdoing but oriented toward transformation and restoration rather than more extensive and severe punishment. In this paper she presents a careful challenge to consider the limitations and unintended harmful consequences of many hate laws as currently formulated. Shenk, Alyssa. Victim-Offender Mediation: The Road to Repairing Hate Crime Injustice. Shenk begins this essay with the observation that historically the American criminal justice system – retributive in character, and focused on crime as a violation of law – has ignored the needs of the victim of crime and failed to restore the victim’s losses. In recent years there has been a trend to bring the needs of the victim to the forefront of the justice system. This, Shenk remarks, is symbolic of a shift toward restorative justice with the focus on the needs of victims. Victim-offender mediation has emerged as the best-known and effective means of practicing restorative justice, yet it has largely been limited to property crimes and minor assaults. Recently, there has been some development to employ victim-offender mediation to more severe, violent crimes. With all of this in view, Shenk contends for the expansion of restorative justice, and specifically the use of victim-offender mediation, to address hate crimes. Strobl, Staci and Volpe, Maria R.. Restorative justice responses to post-September 11 hate crimes: Potential and challenges. This article focuses on the extent to which victim-offender mediation was utilized by restorative justice practitioners in response to anti-Arab and anti-Muslim harassment and other September 11-related hate crimes. Specific attention was given to the disparity between the advocacy for victim-offender mediation in these incidents and its actual use, and the lessons to be learned from restorative justice efforts after September 11. (author's abstract) Ray, Larry and Dixon, Liz. Current issues and developments in race hate crime. This article considers the ‘hate agenda’ as a model for interventions targeted at race hate crime. The authors consider current initiatives in different agencies and make some comparisons between the American and British experience. Sapir, Brian . Healing a Fractured Community: The Use of Community Sentencing Circles in Response to Hate Crimes "Within the Restorative Justice community of the United States, circle sentencing (also known as community circles, peacemaking circles, or healing circles ) has evolved since the early 1990's as an effective way of healing the harm that the offender's crime has done to the community, as well as getting to the root of the problems which may have contributed to the offender's actions in the first place. ... The victim is given an opportunity to voice his or her fear and rage at being victimized; the victim also has a chance to hear the offender's story and gain a better understanding of why the crime occurred; and lastly the victim walks away from the situation with reparations and a sense of having been involved in the justice process and an overall feeling of closure. ... Americans must learn from the experiences of post September 11 not only to prepare for and prevent such crimes, but also to provide victims and communities with the appropriate tools to handle the fear and anger resulting from such victimization. ... The exclusion of the community from the healing process by Victim-Offender Mediation and other Restorative Justice programs makes Sentencing Circles the ideal technique to be used in hate crime cases. ... While Circles have primarily dealt with non-violent offenses, it is a stark reality that hate crimes manifest themselves in a spectrum of offenses including the ultra-violent." (Excerpt from Author) Pugh, Catherine. What do you get when you add Megan Williams to Matthew Sheppard and victim-offender mediation? A hate crime law that prosecutors will actually want to use. Part II details the most significant obstacle undermining pursuit of hate crimes, proving motive. Part III addresses the fissure between society’s needs and a prosecutor’s objectives when it comes to hate crimes pursuit. Further, this section examines shortcomings of society’s one-dimensional approach to punishing hate crimes. Part IV considers the current federal hate crimes laws, followed by a brief comparison between current and proposed law. This section concludes with a discussion on how proposed law can potentially overcome state obstacles. Part V considers an adjustment to proposed laws. That is, it suggests that Congress incorporate VOM into hate crimes penalties by (1) amending current legislation to include public funding for departments of corrections VOM programs; and, (2) developing guidelines and procedures for the Bureau of Prisons to accommodate VOM use within the federal penal system. This comment evaluates the benefits of VOM from three perspectives: first, how folding VOM into the judicial process can potentially entice prosecutors to pursue hate crimes because in at least cases of non-violent hate, a conviction is assured; next, how the restorative justice approach can further cure the actual damage from both non- and severely-violent hate crimes; and finally, how offender confrontation offers more of a long-term cure than the current incarceration-only approach. Finally, in Part VI, we return to Megan Williams and West Virginia State Prosecutor Brian Abrahams, and consider their circumstances as a way to model the question of hate crimes management for the larger legal community and general public. (excerpt) Why I don't support hate crime legislation Jos, writing at feministing.com: Community based forms of restorative justice that empower those who are targeted by violence and work to eradicate the bigotry that leads to such crimes in the first place are a much more valuable change to work toward than empowering our current criminal justice system even more. Violence targeted at members of oppressed communities must be recognized and addressed, but harsher prison sentences are not the way. Document Actions RSS feed Send this Print this	A long-time repeat offender describes the impact of meeting with his victims.