How does hate crime affect people

Data were obtained through focus group meetings, individual interviews, and questionnaires. More than half of the victims reported experiencing a series of attacks rather than a single attack.

Anger, fear, and sadness were the emotional responses most frequently reported by victims. Thousands of people are physically and sometimes brutally attacked each year in hate crimes. Such offences not only affect the victims, but also the thoughts and behaviour of others. Within 24 hours of the massacre of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando , protests and vigils were joined by thousands in London, Sydney, Hong Kong, Bangkok and many other cities around the world.

Although a particularly stark example, the response shows how the effects of hate crime are not limited to the immediate victims: they also affect others who learn of such events. Over the past five years, the Hate Crime Project at the University of Sussex has investigated these wider impacts of hate crime, looking at how simply knowing a victim, or even hearing about an incident, can have significant consequences.

Race hate crimes were most common, but victims might also be targeted because of their sexual orientation, religion, disability, or because they are transgender. The University of Sussex project used studies, experiments and interviews with a total of more than 1, Muslim and 2, LGBT people in the UK to investigate the indirect effects of such crimes. It found that four out of five participants knew someone who had been victimised in the past three years, with about half knowing someone who had been physically assaulted.

As a result of hearing about hate crime in their community, the most common responses were anger, anxiety and feelings of vulnerability. These emotional reactions had a significant impact on both LGBT and Muslim participants' feelings of safety.

Many said they took steps to increase their own security and avoided parts of their neighbourhood where they thought an attack was likely. One Muslim woman described how she had responded to reports of Islamophobic hate crimes, including the murder of year-old Mohammed Saleem , who was stabbed as he walked home from a mosque in Birmingham. And especially within certain times, I would avoid walking within those areas.

One reason for these indirect effects is that people feel more empathy for victims who come from their own community. When they learned about a fellow Muslim, or LGBT person, being abused because of their identity, they put themselves in the victims' shoes and felt something of what they must have felt during the attack.

This made them feel angry on the victims' behalf, but also threatened and fearful that they could also become a victim. These feelings can lead people to change their behaviour - for example, using social media to raise awareness of such attacks - with the effects lasting three months or longer in many cases. Five gay, male friends, some of whom were wearing makeup and jewelry, were exiting a well-known gay bar when they were approached by a group of men who were unknown to them.

Click on any of the bias categories to view a scenario of a hate crime or bias incident involving that category. You are here Home » Hate Crimes. Prev Play Pause Next. Under the First Amendment of the U. Constitution, people cannot be prosecuted simply for their beliefs. People may be offended or upset about beliefs that are untrue or based upon false stereotypes, but it is not a crime to express offensive beliefs, or to join with others who share such views.

However, the First Amendment does not protect against committing a crime, just because the conduct is rooted in philosophical beliefs. Scenario - Color Six black men assaulted and seriously injured a white man and his Asian male friend as they were walking through a residential neighborhood.

Scenario - Disability A group home for persons with psychiatric disabilities who were in transition back into the community was the site of a reported arson. Scenario - Ethnicity Two Palestinian university students speaking in Arabic were attending a department reception when another student, a white male, deliberately bumped into one of them. Scenario - Race In a parking lot next to a bar, a year-old Japanese American male was attacked by a year-old white male wielding a tire iron.

Scenario - Religion Overnight, unknown persons broke into a synagogue and destroyed several priceless religious objects.

Scenario - Sexual Orientation Five gay, male friends, some of whom were wearing makeup and jewelry, were exiting a well-known gay bar when they were approached by a group of men who were unknown to them. Was this page helpful? Yes No.