The aim of this master's degree thesis on the topic of the Criminological Aspects of Hate Crime is to offer a comprehensive perspective on hate crime from the criminological point of view. The first chapter is introductory and concerns itself with the phenomenon of hate crime in general. It deals with the theoretical definition of hate crime, its specific characteristics that distinguish it from other types of crime and it also includes a typology of hate crimes. Subsequently, it focuses on the international, European and Czech substantive legal regulation. The second chapter concerns itself with the related term of extremism. It defines the main ideas and manifestations of right wing and left wing extremism and it also focuses on the current situation and extremist scene in the Czech Republic. During the examination of the right wing political extremism, the terms of racism, nationalism, ethnocentrism and xenophobia are explained. Then, religious extremism and terrorism are briefly described. Finally, the last subchapter deals with the etiology of extremism. The core of this thesis lies in its third chapter that concerns itself with hate crimes from the criminological perspective and examines phenomenology, etiology and control of this criminality. The phenomenological subchapter focuses on the...

This dissertation analyzes personal and institutional narratives that shape the Canadian phenomenon of anti-LGBT violence as hate crime and locate queers within and without the discursive figure of the responsible, legitimate and undeserving victim of hate crime. These socio-legal narratives were taken from interviews with LGBT community activists involved in anti-violence projects, mainstream and gay print news media reportage of two notable homicides, Parliamentary debates of the enhanced sentencing provision that sought to include ‘sexual orientation’ to the list of biased motivating factors, Senate witness testimony on the amendment to Canada’s hate propaganda statutes which sought to include ‘sexual orientation’ to the list of protected groups, interviews with police officers who had direct experience with anti-hate crime initiatives, and judicial reasons for sentence. Utilizing an interdisciplinary analysis and drawing on hate crime scholarship and victimology, this dissertation asks: how is legitimate and, consequently, illegitimate LGBT hate crime victimization being represented and constituted through Canadian socio-legal narratives? In revealing how socio-legal actors and institutions have positioned LGBT individuals discursively within or without legitimate victimhood, that is, within and without the status of innocent victim deserving of social empathy and socio-legal institutional response, my dissertation illustrates how the spectre of illegitimate victimization is repeatedly invoked in socio-legal narratives of anti-LGBT hate crime. My analysis of these narratives about queer victimization and hate crime suggests that the figure of the responsible, legitimate and undeserving victim of hate crime remains an elusive and unstable identity for the queer victim of hate crime. Insofar as hate crime scholars have argued that the mobilization of hate crime activism has produced a victim whose hate crime status ensures its legitimacy, I contribute to this scholarship by arguing that this status is particularly challenging for the queer victim of hate-motivated violence. I demonstrate that the resiliency of the figure of classic victimology’s self-endangering and risky ‘homosexual’ and the sustained ideological resistence to LGBT individuals as full citizens, despite their notable legal gains, positions LGBT individuals, particularly gay men, ambiguously, situating them conceptually both without and within legitimate victimhood.

This dissertation analyzes personal and institutional narratives that shape the Canadian phenomenon of anti-LGBT violence as hate crime and locate queers within and without the discursive figure of the responsible, legitimate and undeserving victim of hate crime. These socio-legal narratives were taken from interviews with LGBT community activists involved in anti-violence projects, mainstream and gay print news media reportage of two notable homicides, Parliamentary debates of the enhanced sentencing provision that sought to include ‘sexual orientation’ to the list of biased motivating factors, Senate witness testimony on the amendment to Canada’s hate propaganda statutes which sought to include ‘sexual orientation’ to the list of protected groups, interviews with police officers who had direct experience with anti-hate crime initiatives, and judicial reasons for sentence. Utilizing an interdisciplinary analysis and drawing on hate crime scholarship and victimology, this dissertation asks: how is legitimate and, consequently, illegitimate LGBT hate crime victimization being represented and constituted through Canadian socio-legal narratives? In revealing how socio-legal actors and institutions have positioned LGBT individuals discursively within or without legitimate victimhood, that is, within and without the status of innocent victim deserving of social empathy and socio-legal institutional response, my dissertation illustrates how the spectre of illegitimate victimization is repeatedly invoked in socio-legal narratives of anti-LGBT hate crime. My analysis of these narratives about queer victimization and hate crime suggests that the figure of the responsible, legitimate and undeserving victim of hate crime remains an elusive and unstable identity for the queer victim of hate crime. Insofar as hate crime scholars have argued that the mobilization of hate crime activism has produced a victim whose hate crime status ensures its legitimacy, I contribute to this scholarship by arguing that this status is particularly challenging for the queer victim of hate-motivated violence. I demonstrate that the resiliency of the figure of classic victimology’s self-endangering and risky ‘homosexual’ and the sustained ideological resistence to LGBT individuals as full citizens, despite their notable legal gains, positions LGBT individuals, particularly gay men, ambiguously, situating them conceptually both without and within legitimate victimhood.

In March 2011 the South African government agreed to address the issue of “corrective rape” due to a petition made by a lesbian activist group. The knowledge of how many women that are raped in South Africa because of their sexual orientation is impossible to achieve since the South African police do not make any distinctions of the motive behind the rape when it is reported. There are “Gay advocacy groups” that claim that there are 10 cases of corrective rape every week just in Cape Town, but these figures have not been confirmed. The gravity of the problem is still eminent as women come forth witnessing about the hate-crimes committed against them.      This study is an attempt to gain knowledge about the situation for these women that exist under the radar of official statistics. Through interviews the study tries to shed light on how the women perceive their situation and through theories from the professional field of social work the aim is to analyse their recovery process, if there is one, after being the survivor of hate crime.      This research shows that the women lived in an exposed position filled with fear, making them alienate from society. The study also found that the women face a number of problems that interfere with their process of recovery and healing. It also disclosed factors that made healing possible even in a violent society like the South African. The support system that surrounded the women was scarce in regards to for example family, but the greater when including the LGBTI community. The research lifts forth how social work can change the lives for people living in an exposed position in society.

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 95 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-95).

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2006. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-95).

The aim of this thesis on the topic of the Criminological Aspects of Hate Crime is to offer comprehensive point of view on this issues to the reader. The thesis is divided into five separate chapters. The first chapter is focused on definition of hate crime, specific characteristics of this criminality which distinguish it from other types of crime and also on typology of hate crime. The second chapter is concentrated to the Czech substantive legal regulation of hate crime and its possible regulatory options for the future in a first place. In its other part is focused on legal regulation of hate crime in the United States of America, Great Britain and Germany. In the last part of the chapter, the regulations of all these states are compared in terms of method which they used for anchoring hate crime in the legal system and how large their protection of minority is. The third chapter includes the issue of extremism which is defined at first and than divided into individual forms of extremism, based on their ideological bases and pursued aims, Furthermore, the attention is concentrated on the current state of the extremist scene in the Czech Republic, its activities and subjects. The final part of the chapter is devoted to concepts, closely related to extremism, like racism, anti-Semitism,...

Criminological Aspects of Hate Crime Abstract The purpose of this thesis on the topic of the Criminological Aspects of Hate Crime is to present a concise summary of essential and available information on the issue of these crimes and to highlight specifics of these criminal activities from other types of crime. The thesis is divided into ten chapters according to the selected thematic areas. The first chapter is focused on concept of hate crime and its characteristic. This chapter offers various conceptions of hate crime, its definitions, brief history, development and description of spreading of this concept. A common feature of the definitions of hate crime mentioned in this thesis is that hate crime is a crime committed by the offender due to some strongly negative emotion, which this offender has towards variously defined groups of the population. The second chapter describes the forms of hate crimes in terms of the nature of the offender's conduct and in terms of the offender's motivational background. The third chapter provides an overview of the legal regulation of hate crime in the Czech Republic and in the selected countries (USA, Canada and FRG). The end of this chapter contains a comparison of the legislation of the Czech Republic with the legislation of the selected countries. The fourth chapter...

Criminal acts committed by racial, national and other hateful motives Abstract in english The dissertation thesis is focused on the issue of crimes committed by racial, national and other hate motives, which are nowadays commonly referred to as hate crimes. The dissertation thesis comprehensively elaborates the essence of the issue of hate crimes and the ideas on which this crime is based on. The thesis points to a relatively rich but very inconsistent and constantly evolving terminology and defines related terms such as extremism, racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Islamism or racial prejudice. It should be recalled that the notion of hate crime is not entirely appropriate to this issue. A closer interpretation of the individual terms is important for the correct interpretation of the relevant facts that are affected by this issue. The analysis of related criminal offenses and related case-law demonstrates what conduct these crimes may impact. We have to realize that the issue is very closely related to the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech and expression, and they are very closely intertwined. To define the boundary between an offense and the right of an individual freely expressing their opinions in word, writing, print, image or otherwise, as well as freely seeking, receiving and disseminating...

Criminological Aspects of Hate Crime Abstract Hate crime refers to a set of crimes committed for a prejudicial motive against a group of people for their essential personality characteristics such as nationality, religion, or sexual orientation. Topicality of the issue stems from the fact that related social phenomena such as racism, xenophobia, radicalisation, or discrimination of minorities are far from being satisfactorily dealt with even in Western society. The fundamental goal of this thesis is to provide the reader with a comprehensive criminological view of hate crimes in the territory of the Czech Republic. Main findings include the following: the concept of hate crime is not unified in theory nor legislation in terms of protected characteristics, which negatively translates into research and policy of hate crime. The quantity of registered crime is in the order of less than 200 crimes per year, its trend is downward, and its structure is predominantly non-violent; unfortunately, it is also accompanied by high latency. The Czech perpetrator is usually male and a repeat offender, in early adulthood, with a basic education and without a factual relationship to extremist groups. Victims of violent forms of hate crime are, in principle, suffering more intense harm (especially psychological) than victims...