The Leicester Hate Crime Research Project: Impact and Findings - A Summary
(December 2014)
Impact
The Leicester Hate Crime Research Project came to an end in October 2014. The economic and social
impact of our work will be more evident in the months to come, but at the time of writing
(December 2014) the research has already made a significant contribution in the following ways:
1)
Our findings have raised awareness of the different forms that hate crime can take and the
range of groups and communities who fall victim to hate crime.
During the life of the project we engaged with more than 4,000 people from some of the more
established and emerging minority groups in Leicester to raise awareness of what hate crimes are
and how to access support. This will make a difference to levels of understanding and reporting
amongst some of the city's most disadvantaged and vulnerable communities. We also worked with a
total of 120 statutory, voluntary and community-based organisations and networks to ensure that
hate crime issues are afforded sufficient priority. Awareness has also been raised through the
completion of 55 media engagements during the life of the project and a further 31 media
engagements thus far on completion of the project. These include features on national and local
radio, television, newspapers and online blog sites. This project has also made an impact through its
Twitter presence. For example, Twitter metrics show that the last 50 Tweets about the project
reached a total of 30,079 accounts, with 10% of followers based outside of the UK within EU
countries and the US, and audiences including policy-makers, practitioners, academics, community
groups and community members.
2)
Our findings have influenced change and good practice in the context of responding to the
needs of hate crime victims.
From the outset our research was designed to help organisations across different sectors to develop
evidence-based, cost-effective policy responses. We have shared our findings and recommendations
with over 350 statutory and voluntary organisations who run services for people affected by hate
crime locally, regionally and nationally. This includes police forces and other criminal justice and
victim support agencies; health and social care providers; and some of the more tailored community
support services including neighbourhood centres, international colleges, race equality groups, LGBT
centres, and support groups for asylum seekers and refugees, the homeless, people with
physical/learning disabilities and mental ill health. In addition, we created a Victims' Manifesto in
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order to secure commitment to the project recommendations from key stakeholders, local
community groups, associations and networks. Thus far key representatives from 50 national and
regional organisations have pledged to incorporate these recommendations into their policies and
strategies through their 'on the record' commitment to the Victims' Manifesto. Finally, in addition to
disseminating findings through reports and briefing papers, the project team produced a short film
entitled 'The Harms of Hate' based on the project findings. More than 200 DVD copies of the film
were distributed to regional, national and international statutory and voluntary organisations, and
the film has also received over 2,700 views on YouTube. It has been used by schools, colleges, youth
groups, prisons, charities and faith groups to showcase key messages from the project. This film won
the award of Best Factual Programme at the Royal Television Society Midlands Awards 2014, and is
one of the featured films at the 2014 Aesthetica Film Festival in York.
Findings
The evidence from this project is based on research conducted with the largest and most diverse
sample of hate crime victims ever identified in a single study. Over the course of two years the
research team engaged with more than 4,000 people from different backgrounds and communities,
and the sample of hate crime victims included nearly 1,500 people who had been subjected to acts
of violence, hostility and intimidation because of their identity or ‘difference’. The research has
generated new knowledge in four key areas:
1)
The nature and impact of hate crime victimisation.
The research illustrated that hate crimes were a routine, and mostly unreported feature of many
people’s daily lives. This includes people who are targeted specifically because of their race, religion,
sexual orientation, disability or their gender identity, as well as those who belong to the kinds of
more marginalised groups so often overlooked within research and policy such as Gypsies and
Travellers, the homeless, new migrant communities and those who live alternative lifestyles. These
offences took a range of different forms, including physical violence, cyberbullying, damage to
property and sexually violent hate crime such as rape or sexual assault. All forms of hate crime had a
significant impact upon victims’ emotional and physical health, with particularly high numbers of
victims of disablist and transphobic hate referring to feeling vulnerable, depressed or suicidal.
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2)
The profile of hate crime perpetrators Hate crime perpetrators are often assumed to be
complete strangers to their victims, and more often than not far-right sympathisers or
extremists.
However, in fewer than half of cases within this research was the offender unknown to the victim,
meaning that more often than not the person perpetrating hate was someone familiar: a neighbour,
a work colleague, a carer, a ‘friend’ or even a family member.
3)
Victims’ expectations in relation to justice There is often an assumption that victims of crime
demand punitive responses to offending behaviour.
This research, however, has challenged that assumption, with participants showing an overwhelming
preference for the use of educational interventions and restorative approaches to justice, as
opposed to extended prison sentences or harsher regimes. Moreover, this preference was shared by
victims of different types of violent and non-violent hate crime and from different communities,
ages and backgrounds.
4)
Implications for criminal justice agencies and other service providers.
The research highlighted victims’ lack of familiarity with the term ‘hate crime’ and their lack of
awareness of how to access support services. It revealed that hate crime awareness campaigns are
failing to resonate with people at a grassroots level, and especially those from smaller and emerging
minority communities and from economically disadvantaged environments. The research also
illustrated how few victims had reported experiences of hate crime to the police, and to other
networks, organisations or individuals in a position of authority and trust. In addition to assessing
barriers to reporting, the research identified ways of making reporting more accessible, reducing
feelings of isolation and vulnerability, and meeting the needs of diverse ‘hard-to-reach’
communities.
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