The following research project thematically analysed in-depth interviews of 5 socially vulnerable Romanian Roma women who support themselves only by means of begging in public spaces of Malmö, Sweden. This paper examined women’s experiences of victimization and their consequences, reasons behind the incidents as well as relationship with the police officers during their time spent in Sweden. The interviews put forward four common themes: frequent harassment during daytime, several grounds for victimisation, negative health consequences and deficient relation with police officers. Women described their experiences of sexual harassment, verbal and physical abuse, feelings of constant stress, paranoia and fear. Interviewed study participants claimed that they are victimized because they are Roma women and thus visible as a result of specific clothing and their activity of begging. Nearly all women reported lack of trust towards justice system. Discussion concludes with several policy suggestions.

The current retributive approach to tackling hate crime, while intuitively grounded in the principle of proportionately, does little to either repair the harms caused by incidents of hate or engender greater levels of acceptance of those deemed as “different”. This thesis therefore explores whether restorative justice, a relatively new theory and practice of criminal justice, is better placed to tackle the causes and consequences of hate victimisation. The 18 month empirical study, carried out to examine the thesis’ aims, uses a triangulation approach by incorporating observations of restorative justice meetings, semi-structured interviews with victim participants and semi-structured interviews with restorative practitioners who have experience facilitating hate crime cases. The mainly qualitative data collated provides for a detailed evaluation of the various processes found within restorative practices that: 1) helped to alleviate the distress caused by hate victimisation and 2) prevented the recurrence of hate-motivated incidents. A broad conceptualisation of hate crime was used within the thesis that included “hate incidents”. This allowed me to explore the utility of restorative practices in cases involving serious violence and the more pervasive “low-level”, but nonetheless highly deleterious, non-criminal incidents of hate that are frequently committed against minority group individuals. There were also several unanticipated findings from the study. First, data emerged which highlighted various aspects of the restorative practice which were unforeseen as being central to the successful application of restorative processes, these are discussed throughout the thesis. Second, great insight was gained into the nature of hate victimisation, helping to unravel some of the complex socio-cultural factors pivotal to both the cause and effect of hate victimisation. It is hoped that these additional findings provide important epistemological advancements in both fields of study.

This study investigates how hate crimes in general and anti-Arab hate crimes in particular were distributed across different regions of the United States during the 2001-2002 period. The study explores how a historical event the terrorist attacks against the U.S. on September 11, 2001 and county population demographics affect the rates of hate crime against Arabs, Muslims or Middle Easterners. It was hypothesized that anti-Arab or anti-Muslim hate crimes displaced other forms of hate crime and were characterized by open acts of violence. According to the contact hypothesis, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate crimes would be more likely to occur in counties with relatively high levels of poverty and economic inequality. The research materials were obtained from publicly available data. The hate crime data were obtained from the national hate crime incidents reported to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) program.

In an ideal world, all hate crimes would be correctly identified by police authorities. However, this is not always the case. Rather, some hate crimes are not identified by the police, and some non-hate crimes are identified as potential hate motivated crimes. Previous research has focused primarily on reporting of hate crimes, the perception of reported cases and clearance. However, not much has been done in terms of understanding police officer’s identification of these cases. This thesis investigates the accuracy and factors influencing officers identifying bias motivated crimes. By using data of identified potential hate crimes identified by police officers among reported crimes and identified hate crimes by the Swedish council for crime prevention (BRÅ) this thesis generated an analysis of factors influencing identification of both bias and non-bias crime. Furthermore, an estimation of police officer’s accuracy in identifying hate crimes has been calculated. Results suggest that hate crimes are more likely to be identified if they are fitting a more stereotypical hate crime profile and if they are perceived as more ideal cases. Furthermore, among all identified hate crimes, the ones that are falsely identified as hate crime are often perceived as more ideal cases. In addition, cases with more stereotypical characteristics seems to be more often identified as a hate crime. This do suggest that some ideal characteristics are highly influential in identification. Among identified cases, around half of the cases had a true bias motive, indicating that accuracy of identification in biased motivated cases is around fifty percent.

State level bias crime legislation was passed throughout much of the United States over the last three decades. Beyond their prosecutorial or instrumental application, bias or hate crime laws serve an expressive or messaging function. This function is meant to promote societal cohesion through the rejection of hateful ideologies, as well as signal to attacked or marginalized members of communities that the government is directly addressing the effects of bias crime. As the number of reported hate crimes in the United States remains essentially level, it is of importance to assess how well the expressive function is performing. Following a background on the development, debate, and variation of bias or hate crime law, this project focuses on a content analysis of prominent state level media with the expectation that the expressive success of laws can be detected in bias crime coverage. It is found that bias crime related stories were featured with greater regularity in the states of Washington and Minnesota, which have passed extensive bias crime legislation. Bias crime related stories were far less prominent in South Carolina, which has no bias crime laws. The State of Wyoming, another state with no bias crime laws, displayed a surprisingly large amount of coverage, primarily as a result of the high-profile murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998.

This thesis addresses a significant knowledge gap in the existing literature on bias-crime, which primarily focuses on minorities while neglecting the experiences of majorities. The primary objective of this study is to shed light on bias-crimes targeting majorities and compare their impact on fear of crime with those experienced by minorities. By analysing data from a sample of 1,616 victims, this research reveals that both minority and majority bias-crime victims exhibit similar patterns in terms of fear of crime. Notably, both groups experience heightened levels of fear compared to victims of non-bias crimes, with no significant difference observed between the two. Moreover, this study identifies several factors associated with fear of crime in both minority and majority victims, including recent victimisation, intersectionality, indirect victimisation, and the presence of visibility/visual identifiers. Although this thesis initially aimed to identify differences between the two groups, it ultimately found striking similarities. The discussion section critically examines the potential role of methodological limitations in shaping these findings and offers insights into their implications. By addressing this research gap, this thesis contributes to the criminological field by offering a more comprehensive understanding of bias-crime and its impact on fear of crime among both minority and majority populations.