Understanding and responding to
Hate Crime
Presented by:
Prof Juan A. Nel
(UNISA Centre for Applied
Psychology)
At HSRC/ ISS Panel Discussion
Pretoria
30 August 2011
OVERVIEW
• What is hate crime?
– Why a separate crime category?
– Why considered a priority crime?
• Responding to hate crime
– Role of Psychology
• Current attempts at addressing hate crimes in SA
– Integrated Victim Empowerment Policy Guidelines
– Hate Crimes Working Group
– Proposed Hate Crimes Bill
– Interim LGBTI Task Team
• Recommendations
WHAT IS HATE CRIME?
•
HATE CRIME DEFINED
– A criminal act committed against people, property, or organisations
that is motivated in whole or part by prejudice because of the group to
which the victim belongs or identifies with (i.e. LGBTI community,
foreign national or Muslims).
– Perpetrators seek to demean and dehumanise victims – considered
different based on actual or perceived race, ethnicity, gender, age,
sexual orientation, disability, health status, nationality, social origin,
religious convictions, culture, language and/or other characteristic.
– Hate crime (‘corrective rape’) v Hate incident (hate speech)
– ‘Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words…”
Relationship between stereotyping, discrimination &
victimisation
Victimisation
Perception
Discrimination
Categorisation
Prejudgement
Labelling/
Stereotyping
WHAT IS HATE CRIME?
While hate-based victimisation may be in the form of an
isolated incident, such victimisation most often occurs
in contexts of sustained harassment including daily,
ongoing acts of taunting, constant bullying or
conflicts between people known to each other
within specific settings, such as a school or a
community
→ What, then, are the implications ito required
interventions??
WHY SEPARATE CRIME CATEGORY?
– Perpetrator prejudice differentiates hate crime from other
crimes (So, what does it suggest ito interventions??)
– Identity crime: Directed at the identity of the victim and
motivated by hatred or specific targeting not of the individual, but
of the group to which they belong (How then do we best
intervene??)
– Message crime: Message conveyed by perpetrator impacts
beyond direct victim/s, to others in targeted group (What then
can serve as prevention?)
WHY CONSIDERED PRIORITY CRIME?
Internationally considered a priority crime:
• Not on basis of prevalence, but rather severity of emotional &
psychological impact beyond individual victim; extending to
group to which they belong (i.e. fear; shame; self hatred;
delayed help-/ health seeking behaviour) or are perceived to
belong, and to the broader community or society at large
• Hate Crimes Act of New York State:
"Hate crimes do more than threaten the safety and welfare of all
citizens. They inflict on victims incalculable physical and emotional
damage and tear at the very fabric of free society. Crimes motivated
by invidious hatred toward particular groups not only harm individual
victims but send a powerful message of intolerance and
discrimination to all members of the group to which the victim
belongs. Hate crimes can and do intimidate and disrupt entire
communities and vitiate the civility that is essential to healthy
democratic processes.”
RESPONDING TO HATE CRIME
•
HAS TO BE MULTI-SECTORAL
VISIBLE, AUDIBLE AND ACTIVE
– Law and policy (i.e. Constitution and Equality Act and Victim
Empowerment policy guidelines) is a beginning, but it is not enough
– Actively speak out against prejudice
– Mobilise and organise (in our own communities and sectors) to respond
to prejudice-motivated acts at the social level
– Support civil society’s efforts at ensuring State accountability for
appropriate service delivery, access to justice and non-discriminatory
practises
– Visible and vocal leadership: speaking out against all forms of hate, at
all levels
– One voice: need to hold our government accountable for ongoing
perpetuation of exclusionism (See SA government UN-related votes/
statements…)
ADDRESSING HATE CRIME
•
PREVALENCE, NATURE AND IMPACT
– Statistics generally lacking
• Varying definitions, legislative limitations, underreporting
•
CHALLENGES
– Paucity of data due to underreporting, no legislation, no systems in
place, secondary victimisation etc
•
REQUIREMENTS
– Hate crimes are linked to social identities, social power and to social
attitudes. A response will therefore require targeted, multidisciplinary
and multilevel (macro, meso and micro) interventions and leadership
ROLE OF PSYCHOLOGY
As Psychologists, both in research and in psychotherapy, we specialise in
communication and facilitation of change; we create contexts, in our various
fields of expertise, in which our clients and / or research participants can
begin to explore optional patterns of interaction, thereby setting the stage
for attitudinal and behavioural change. Our response-ability therefore is to:
•
•
•
•
DESCRIBE
– What, where, when, how, to whom and by whom
PROMOTE UNDERSTANDING THROUGH PROVIDING INSIGHT
– Policy (macro)
– Awareness creation (micro)
PREVENT
– Design and implement actionable programmes in communities,
collaborating with CBOs, CSOs, NGOs (meso)
TREAT
– Victims AND perpetrators
Prevent
Perception
Categorisation
Labelling/ Stereotyping
Prejudgement
React
Trauma
counselling
Psychology
Deprioritisation
Marginalisation
Exclusion
Discrimination
Victimisation
C
o
n
t
i
n
u
u
m
Hate
Crime
Criminal
Justice
System
Prevent
C
o
n
t
i
n
u
u
m
Psychotherapy
Reactive
education
?
React
CURRENT ATTEMPTS AT ADDRESSING HATE
CRIME IN SA
– Integrated Victim Empowerment Policy Guidelines (2008: includes all
hate victims as priority group, in particular LGBT and foreign nationals)
• Tsholo Moloi (tsholom@dsd.gov.za) / Athalia Shabangu
(athalias@dsd.gov.za)
– Hate Crimes Working Group (2009: multi-sectoral emphasis)
• Wozani Moyo (wozani@cormsa.org.za) / Roshan Dadoo
(roshan@cormsa.org.za) / Juan Nel (nelja@unisa.ac.za)
– Proposed Hate Crimes Bill (2010: emphasis on xenophobia????)
• Advocate Basset (lbassett@justice.gov.za) / Ooshara Sewpaul
(OSewpaul@justice.gov.za)
– Interim Task Team on LGBTI Criminal Justice Issues (2011: with
obvious emphasis…)
• Tlali Tlali (TTlali@justice.gov.za) / Siphiwe Ntombela
(SNtombela@justice.gov.za) / Dipika Nath (nathd@hrw.org)
Hate Crimes Working Group (HCWG)
Current role players
Consortium for Refugees and
Migrants in South Africa (CoRMSA)
Centre for the Study of Violence and
Reconciliation
(CSVR)
Jewish Board of Deputies
The Scalabrini Centre
Amnesty International
OUT LGBT Well-being
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR)
Independent Projects Trust
Sonke Gender Justice
Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy
Centre (TLAC)
University of South Africa Centre for
Applied Psychology (UCAP)
UN Office for the High Commissioner
for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Gay & Lesbian Memory in Action
(GALA)
Human Rights Watch
and others…
News24
Law to get tough on xenophobia
20 July 2010
Hlengiwe Mnguni, News24
Cape Town - The department of justice is in the process of preparing a bill that will make
South African law tougher on hate crimes - such as those fuelled by xenophobia, it said.
According to records on the Parliamentary Monitoring Group website, the bill is expected
to be submitted to Parliament this year and it is hoped that it will have a "positive impact
on victims of crime, particularly foreigners who have been subject to xenophobic attacks".
Department of justice spokesperson Tlali Tlali said the proposed law will bring South
Africa in line with its obligations to the United Nation's International Convention on the
Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.
"This bill will create offences relating to racial discrimination, xenophobia, hate speech
and other related acts of intolerance," he told News24.
Tlali said the proposed bill would strengthen existing laws and processes in dealing with
crimes of discrimination.
"Should the need arise, more prosecutors will receive training on how to effectively use
this legislation in order to ensure that the most severe of penalties permissible under the
law are imposed by our courts when cases of this nature are heard," he said.
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Law-to-get-tough-on-xenophobia-20100719
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Avoid a ‘hierarchy of hate’ – it’s not about ‘foreign
nationals’, nor is it about ‘black lesbians’ only, nor about
‘LGBTIs’, or whomever makes the most noise about their
victimisation…
• Research should incorporate context (the ‘how’, ‘when’
and ‘by whom’, if accurate, useful information is to be
gained
• Embrace/ partake in Hate Crime Working Group-initiated
intersectoral research - See Hate Crime Monitoring Form
(For more info, contact Hanlie van Wyk: hanlie@quantumleap.pni.co.za)
RECOMMENDATIONS (Cont…)
• Let’s not get stuck on the macro interventions, only…
• Much energy and resources will be required to also
develop the meso and micro emphases required for
longer-term, sustained transformation of our society….
• Intersectoral and interdisciplinary collaboration is not
optional, it is a necessity
• To enable this, it is necessary to decomplexify our
descriptions in order to complexify our responses
THE END
THANK YOU!
(Enquiries: Juan Nel
Cell: +27(0)83 282 0791 or nelja@unisa.ac.za)
Note:
The contribution of Hanlie van Wyk to an earlier version of this
presentation is acknowledged