Understanding and responding to Hate Crime

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Understanding and responding toHate Crime

• Presented by
• Prof Juan A. Nel
• (UNISA Centre for Applied
• Psychology)
• At HSRC/ ISS Panel Discussion
• Pretoria
• 30 August 2011

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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

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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

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Relationship between stereotyping, discrimination
victimisation

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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??

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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?)

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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.

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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 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)

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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

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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

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React 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
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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_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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Hate 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
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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
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RECOMMENDATIONS

• 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)

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RECOMMENDATIONS (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

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THE 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