Hate crime: Who are the offenders?

• In Event: Hate Crime Offending

Abstract

Following the lead from scholars in the United States the study of hate crime has developed significantly in the last 10 years or so in the UK, continental Europe and Australasia. Yet, while our understanding of hate crime victimisation has grown in that time following the publication of a number of important studies examining the different victim strands, our knowledge of offenders is comparatively little. Through an analysis of hate crime data from combined British Crime Survey/Crime Survey for England and Wales sweeps this paper provides the first national assessment of perpetrators of hate crime. Using victim accounts of perpetrators, the paper explores and identifies differences and similarities between various types of hate offence and the profile of perpetrators who commit them.

Author

• Jon Garland, University of Surrey