Title: Understanding and responding to Hate Crime
1Understanding and responding toHate Crime
- Presented by
- Prof Juan A. Nel
- (UNISA Centre for Applied
- Psychology)
- At HSRC/ ISS Panel Discussion
- Pretoria
- 30 August 2011
-
2OVERVIEW
- 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
3WHAT 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
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5Relationship between stereotyping, discrimination
victimisation
6WHAT 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??
7WHY 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?)
8WHY 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.
9RESPONDING 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 societys 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)
10ADDRESSING 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
11ROLE 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
12React Trauma counselling Psycho-
therapy Reactive education ? React
Perception
Prevent Prevent
Categorisation
Labelling/ Stereotyping
Prejudgement
Psychology
Continuum
Continuum
Deprioritisation Marginalisation
Exclusion Discrimination
Hate Crime
Victimisation
Criminal Justice System
13CURRENT 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_at_dsd.gov.za) / Athalia
Shabangu (athalias_at_dsd.gov.za) - Hate Crimes Working Group (2009 multi-sectoral
emphasis) - Wozani Moyo (wozani_at_cormsa.org.za) / Roshan Dadoo
(roshan_at_cormsa.org.za) / Juan Nel
(nelja_at_unisa.ac.za) - Proposed Hate Crimes Bill (2010 emphasis on
xenophobia????) - Advocate Basset (lbassett_at_justice.gov.za) /
Ooshara Sewpaul (OSewpaul_at_justice.gov.za) - Interim Task Team on LGBTI Criminal Justice
Issues (2011 with obvious emphasis) - Tlali Tlali (TTlali_at_justice.gov.za) / Siphiwe
Ntombela (SNtombela_at_justice.gov.za) / Dipika Nath
(nathd_at_hrw.org)
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15Hate Crimes Working Group (HCWG) Current role players 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
16 News24
20 July 2010 Law to get tough on
xenophobia 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
17RECOMMENDATIONS
- Avoid a hierarchy of hate its 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_at_quantumleap.pni.co.za)
18RECOMMENDATIONS (Cont)
- Lets 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
19THE END
- THANK YOU!
- (Enquiries Juan Nel
- Cell 27(0)83 282 0791 or nelja_at_unisa.ac.za)
- Note
- The contribution of Hanlie van Wyk to an earlier
version of this presentation is acknowledged