Massachusetts Hate Crime Resource Guide

• In Event: Understanding the Future of Hate: Concepts, Theories, and Trends in Bias Crimes Research

Abstract

In recent years hate crime reported to the police have been increasing. According to data collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) elementary, secondary and post-secondary schools are the third most common location of hate crimes and bias motivated incidents. Schools however are often unprepared to respond to bias motivated incidents that occur to their students. Often, school officials do not take allegations of bias motivated incidents seriously because they fear community backlash. In Massachusetts, the authors of this paper led a team who developed a Hate Crime Resource Guide for all Massachusetts schools. The Guide reflected best practices collected from a national search of websites of state and local educational systems, law enforcement and hate crime victim support organizations, as well as interview of key stakeholders from education, law enforcement and victim support fields. The Guide includes recommendations on primary prevention practices as well as recommendations on model policies and best practices to respond to allegations of bias motivated incidents. The Guide also includes best practices to support both primary and secondary victims of bias motivated incidents.

Authors

• Jack McDevitt, Northeastern University

• Janice Iwama, American University