Backstab

The Leicester Hate Crime Project, hosted by the University of Leicester, has published the results of the largest study in UK history*. They analyzed assaults, ranging from verbal abuse to violent crimes, which people are subjected to just because someone does not like their ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity, appearance, build, limited physical or mental abilities, and so on.

This work did not aim to assess the prevalence and dynamics of hate crimes in British society, but focused on their “internal structure”: who, how, how often, in what forms is harassed, who is the offender and how people react to attacks.

The authors of the study collected and summarized the stories of 1480 people over the age of 16, each of whom had ever been a victim of hate crimes. Most of the respondents filled out questionnaires, and 374 people participated in in-depth interviews – this research tool allows sociologists to receive not only quantitative, but also qualitative information.

Read more:

• Can you understand other people’s experiences?

In addition, during the project, scientists conducted field work in groups and communities whose members are often victims of various forms of discrimination, but rarely turn to official authorities for help. As a result, information about the dangers of hate crimes and how to seek protection from them has reached 4000 people. Thus, the project, in addition to its research value, also played an important social role.

As expected, relatively milder forms of persecution were the most common. Thus, 55% of respondents reported that the most recent case when they were subjected to hate-motivated attacks was verbal abuse, 29% named various types of harassment and offensive actions, 13% – property damage, 9% – physical violence, 6% – bullying on the Internet and 4% – sexual violence.

However, usually people suffer from hate crimes “chronically”, so at least once in their lives 32% of respondents became victims of physical attacks, and 10% of sexual attacks. One transgender woman said: “I started keeping a diary of all the attacks I was subjected to, and in a year I entered about 500 such cases in it.” She is echoed by a man who sells a newspaper for the homeless: “I had to listen to nasty things, but that’s nothing. It’s bad when it comes to action: if you can spit on me, what else are you capable of?

The pretexts for attacks confirm the well-known maxims “if there was a person, but there would be an article” and “you are to blame for the fact that I want to eat.” So, offenders find fault with representatives of racial minorities because of their skin color, with women because of their appearance, with people with disabilities “because they allegedly interfere with someone in transport.

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• “I want like others”: the world through the eyes of a child

There is also a lot of predictability in the composite “portrait” of offenders: 70% of them are teenagers or young people under the age of 30, and at least one man participated in 68% of the attacks. But here’s an unpleasant surprise: in 51% of cases, the victims knew the offenders, including neighbors, colleagues, and even representatives of helping professions. “It is believed that such crimes are committed by strangers, far-right extremists or people filled with malice and hatred. However, our research demonstrates that, shockingly often, the offenders are very ordinary people, and acquaintances of the victims, and this circumstance, as it turned out, causes the victims especially great emotional and physical harm, ”explains Stevie-Jade Hardy, head of work hardy).

The saddest thing is how rarely the victims achieve fair retribution. Only 24% reported their most recent assault to the police, and only 4% went to trial. To the question “why?” Another figure answers: only 55% of those who applied there were satisfied with the actions of the police.

* Stevie-Jade Hardy, Leicester Hate Crime Project: 2.le.ac.uk/departments/criminology/research/current-projects/hate-crime/victims-manifesto-1