Responding to hate crime: Escalating problems, continued failings

Abstract

The need for fresh responses to hate crime has become all the more apparent at a time when numbers of incidents have risen to record levels, both within the UK and beyond. Despite progress within the domains of scholarship and policy, these escalating levels of hate crime – and the associated increase in tensions, scapegoating and targeted hostility that accompanies such spikes – casts doubt over the effectiveness of existing measures and their capacity to address the needs of hate crime victims. This article draws from extensive fieldwork conducted with more than 2000 victims of hate crime to illustrate failings in relation to dismantling barriers to reporting, prioritizing meaningful engagement with diverse communities and delivering effective criminal justice interventions. It highlights how these failings can exacerbate the sense of distress felt by victims from a diverse range of backgrounds and communities, and calls for urgent action to plug the ever-widening chasm between state-level narratives and victims’ lived realities.