Hate Crime

Restorative justice and hate crime victims and perpetrators.

Growing past hate: 'Restorative justice' helps heal pain from teens' vandalism

from the article by Fred Van Liew in the DesMoines Register: In March of 1994 members of the Temple B’nai Jeshurun in Des Moines awoke to find neo-Nazi graffiti scrawled on the side of their synagogue. There were no immediate suspects, but there was anguish, anger and outrage.

Restorative justice must humble if it is to be judged a success

an editorial in the Derby Telegraph: There is little doubt that restorative justice makes sense. Certainly when it was first brought in, the suggestion that a victim of crime being handed immediate compensation by a perpetrator made sense.

Priest's slaying in Birmingham to be remembered in church service

from the article by Greg Garrison in the Birmingham News: The 1921 slaying of a Catholic priest in Birming­ham by a Methodist min­­ister will be the subject of repentance during a 6:30 p.m. Ash Wednesday service at Highlands United Methodist Church, 1045 20th Street South, led by United Methodist Bishop William Willimon. "It's going to be a power­ful and a historic event," said Jim Pinto, director of the Father James E. Coyle Memorial Project. "We're not going to live in the past, but we want to more fully understand the past."

Martin Luther King and life after hate

from the entry by Evelyn Zellerer on Peace of the Circle: ....“The nonviolent approach does not immediately change the heart of the oppressor. It first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it. It gives them new self-respect; it calls up resources of strength and courage that they did not know they had. Finally it reaches the opponent and so stirs his conscience that reconciliation becomes a reality.” [Martin Luther King]

Celebrity chef backs new Scottish Police hate crime scheme

from the news release by Lothian and Borders Police: Celebrity chef Tony Singh is backing Lothian and Borders Police pioneering new scheme for tackling Juvenile Hate Crime. The Edinburgh based TV regular launched the scheme with Deputy Chief Constable Steve Allen, and LGBT Youth Scotland’s Schools Development Manager, Cara Spence, at LGBT Youth Scotland, Leith, on Monday 12th December.

Partnering with police to do restorative justice

from the article in PeaceBuilder: ....“Chief Wetherbee called me throughout the week at SPI,” Larson Sawin recalls with a smile. “I suspected he’d be wary of the ritual components of SPI, but the coursework caught his imagination. He said the days went so quickly, five o’clock would roll around and he felt like the day had just started.” At first, some of his SPI classmates were skeptical that police – often considered a fundamentally coercive force – could play a positive role in RJ processes. If only they had known the full scope of what was happening in Massachusetts.

Seeking ‘peace on this earth’: Detailing the need for Alabama to offer a formal state apology

from Ben Greenberg's article in The Anniston Star: Two local governments in southeast Alabama are expected to issue an apology for a 1944 rape of a black woman by several white men, none of whom were ever prosecuted. ....Asked if the apology would also be on behalf of the state, Grimsley said, “We haven’t addressed that level yet.” ....“Clearly there should be an apology from the state here as well as the county,” said Professor Margaret Burnham, director of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Program at Northeastern University School of Law. “Each failed to pursue the investigation aggressively and promptly, and more generally afforded utter impunity to white men who raped black women. Such a statement would not only honor Recy Taylor and her family for their courage and tenacity in seeking justice, but it would speak to scores of victims who similarly suffered in silence.”

Hate crime victims to face offenders

from the article by Jonathan Kalmus in the Jewish Chronicle Online: Greater Manchester Police are to ask antisemitic offenders to face their victims. A restorative justice scheme piloted across GMP since November gives hate crime victims the option of meeting the perpetrators to explain the impact of racism and receive an apology. Victims can also ask a representative to meet the offender, request community service as a punishment for them, or opt for criminal proceedings.

Tougher legislation needed on hate crimes

from Kristopher Wells and Murray Billett's article in the Edmonton Journal: ....Here in Canada, the gravity of hate crimes was officially recognized in 1970, when the government amended the Criminal Code to include hate propaganda as a punishable offence. In 1996, the government also introduced enhanced sentencing provisions for offences motivated by hate, and in 2001 included mischief to religious property as a specific hate-motivated offence. Despite this evolution, we argue that these legislative responses to hate have not gone far enough. The problem most concerning to many diverse communities and law enforcement officials involves the fact that there are still no direct provisions in the Criminal Code to identify hate crime as a violent offence (such as assault) or as a crime against a person or individual property (such as vandalism).

Judicial system fails in hate crime

from the article by Ian Gillespie in the London Free Press: ....How do you respond when you're targeted simply because you're you? That's a hate crime -- when someone is victimized because of their race, religion, ethnic origin, sexual orientation or physical and mental abilities. And while any crime is awful and traumatic for its victims, hate crimes are particularly repugnant because they're attacks against the essence of a person. That's why last week's court decision involving an attack upon a gay man is so lamentable.

Courage to repair

from the editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: A racist prank perpetrated outside the University of Missouri's Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center 11 days ago has evoked a reassuring response. The two undergraduates — Zachary E. Tucker and Sean D. Fitzgerald — tried to make a mockery of the bitter history of black servitude. They scattered cotton balls outside the culture center under cover of night. But their crude handiwork was greeted with sharp and universal condemnation. Both students were identified and suspended from school. Last week, they were arrested. The Boone County prosecutor is weighing whether to pursue criminal charges.

Exploring restorative justice response to hate crimes against Sikhs

'Diaper head,' 'terrorist,' 'taliban,' 'towel-head' are some of the few names which have been in increased use since 9/11 against those believed to be Muslims or members of the Taliban in the United States as well as in Canada. Although not all, some of the victims in such cases are normally not members of any terrorist group but a part of the Sikh faith which emerges from India with no intention of 'bombing' anything or place- brining no harm to anyone despite the hate crimes being inflicted on the group itself. Through widespread portrayal of the turbaned man as the terrorist or Muslims as the Taliban, various groups who conform to a similar identity (i.e. especially Sikhs) have been attempting to face such hate crimes and misunderstandings in the name of terrorism since 9/11. This paper will attempt to approach the hate crimes which have been inflicted particularly on the Sikh community since the attack on the World Trade Centre, 2001, through a restorative means to seek for answers in order to deal with the victims of attack in addition to the larger community.

Ten years is enough: Remembering the victims of hate crime violence

If we have learned anything over the past decade, it is that hate does not happen in a vacuum. In a polarized climate of “culture wars,” the differences and chasms between us overshadow what should bring us together to recognize our common humanity. In such a climate, even the measures intended to prevent hate crimes and address intolerance are politicized. The hate crimes bill that is moving its way through Congress seeks to improve the federal government's ability to enforce hate crimes laws with local law enforcement and has been named after Matthew Shepard, the gay University of Wyoming student who was brutally murdered in 1998. The bill includes protections for victims of bias based on sexual orientation, gender, gender expression, and disability.

Why I don't support hate crime legislation

Jos, writing at feministing.com: Community based forms of restorative justice that empower those who are targeted by violence and work to eradicate the bigotry that leads to such crimes in the first place are a much more valuable change to work toward than empowering our current criminal justice system even more. Violence targeted at members of oppressed communities must be recognized and addressed, but harsher prison sentences are not the way.

Pugh, Catherine. What do you get when you add Megan Williams to Matthew Sheppard and victim-offender mediation? A hate crime law that prosecutors will actually want to use.

Part II details the most significant obstacle undermining pursuit of hate crimes, proving motive. Part III addresses the fissure between society’s needs and a prosecutor’s objectives when it comes to hate crimes pursuit. Further, this section examines shortcomings of society’s one-dimensional approach to punishing hate crimes. Part IV considers the current federal hate crimes laws, followed by a brief comparison between current and proposed law. This section concludes with a discussion on how proposed law can potentially overcome state obstacles. Part V considers an adjustment to proposed laws. That is, it suggests that Congress incorporate VOM into hate crimes penalties by (1) amending current legislation to include public funding for departments of corrections VOM programs; and, (2) developing guidelines and procedures for the Bureau of Prisons to accommodate VOM use within the federal penal system. This comment evaluates the benefits of VOM from three perspectives: first, how folding VOM into the judicial process can potentially entice prosecutors to pursue hate crimes because in at least cases of non-violent hate, a conviction is assured; next, how the restorative justice approach can further cure the actual damage from both non- and severely-violent hate crimes; and finally, how offender confrontation offers more of a long-term cure than the current incarceration-only approach. Finally, in Part VI, we return to Megan Williams and West Virginia State Prosecutor Brian Abrahams, and consider their circumstances as a way to model the question of hate crimes management for the larger legal community and general public. (excerpt)

Sapir, Brian . Healing a Fractured Community: The Use of Community Sentencing Circles in Response to Hate Crimes

"Within the Restorative Justice community of the United States, circle sentencing (also known as community circles, peacemaking circles, or healing circles ) has evolved since the early 1990's as an effective way of healing the harm that the offender's crime has done to the community, as well as getting to the root of the problems which may have contributed to the offender's actions in the first place. ... The victim is given an opportunity to voice his or her fear and rage at being victimized; the victim also has a chance to hear the offender's story and gain a better understanding of why the crime occurred; and lastly the victim walks away from the situation with reparations and a sense of having been involved in the justice process and an overall feeling of closure. ... Americans must learn from the experiences of post September 11 not only to prepare for and prevent such crimes, but also to provide victims and communities with the appropriate tools to handle the fear and anger resulting from such victimization. ... The exclusion of the community from the healing process by Victim-Offender Mediation and other Restorative Justice programs makes Sentencing Circles the ideal technique to be used in hate crime cases. ... While Circles have primarily dealt with non-violent offenses, it is a stark reality that hate crimes manifest themselves in a spectrum of offenses including the ultra-violent." (Excerpt from Author)

Ray, Larry and Dixon, Liz. Current issues and developments in race hate crime.

This article considers the ‘hate agenda’ as a model for interventions targeted at race hate crime. The authors consider current initiatives in different agencies and make some comparisons between the American and British experience.

Strobl, Staci and Volpe, Maria R.. Restorative justice responses to post-September 11 hate crimes: Potential and challenges.

This article focuses on the extent to which victim-offender mediation was utilized by restorative justice practitioners in response to anti-Arab and anti-Muslim harassment and other September 11-related hate crimes. Specific attention was given to the disparity between the advocacy for victim-offender mediation in these incidents and its actual use, and the lessons to be learned from restorative justice efforts after September 11. (author's abstract)

Shenk, Alyssa. Victim-Offender Mediation: The Road to Repairing Hate Crime Injustice.

Shenk begins this essay with the observation that historically the American criminal justice system – retributive in character, and focused on crime as a violation of law – has ignored the needs of the victim of crime and failed to restore the victim’s losses. In recent years there has been a trend to bring the needs of the victim to the forefront of the justice system. This, Shenk remarks, is symbolic of a shift toward restorative justice with the focus on the needs of victims. Victim-offender mediation has emerged as the best-known and effective means of practicing restorative justice, yet it has largely been limited to property crimes and minor assaults. Recently, there has been some development to employ victim-offender mediation to more severe, violent crimes. With all of this in view, Shenk contends for the expansion of restorative justice, and specifically the use of victim-offender mediation, to address hate crimes.

Whitlock, katherine. In a time of broken bones: A call to dialogue on hate violence and the limitations of hate crimes legislation

As defined by the first hate crimes laws, such crimes consist of harmful actions (e.g., harassment, intimidation, violence, and murder) perpetrated against another person because of that person's race, national origin, or religion. Currently, many advocate the extension of hate crime legislation to include harmful acts against people identified in terms of categories such as gender, sexual preference, and disabilities. Would the extension of hate crime legislation be a good thing? As stated in this paper, when harm is done to another on the basis of hatred for some distinguishing characteristic, it is right to seek justice in response. Yet, Katherine Whitlock asks, what is justice in this context? Whitlock casts a vision of 'healing justice' rooted in resistance to wrongdoing but oriented toward transformation and restoration rather than more extensive and severe punishment. In this paper she presents a careful challenge to consider the limitations and unintended harmful consequences of many hate laws as currently formulated.