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David Ahenakew was charged with wilfully promoting hatred against an identifiable group, namely people of the Jewish faith, as a result of statements that he had made on December 13th, 2002, during a speech and a subsequent interview with James Parker, a reporter with the Saskatoon Star Phoenix newspaper, contrary to Section 319(2), Wilful Promotion of Hatred, of The Criminal Code of Canada. As in most cases of alleged hate crimes, however, assessing the actual intent and motives of the accused is difficult. The case of R. v. Ahenakew brought national attention to the issue of hate crimes and antisemitism in Canada. Indeed, this case highlights the fact that hate crimes are not just about an individual victim, but the entire ethnic, religious, cultural, or sexual community that they represent.At issue in this case was whether or not Mr. Ahenakew had a private conversation with Mr. Parker, as Ahenakew maintained, or if he and Mr. Parker did indeed engage in an official media interview for public consumption. If the latter had occurred, then Mr. Ahenakew would not have been able to claim that his statements about Jews were made during the course of a private conversation and thus not subject to Canada's Criminal Code provisions governing hate propaganda. Moreover, the judge had to decide if Ahenakew wilfully promoted hatred towards peoples of the Jewish faith.This paper will analyze the decision in Ahenakew's original trial and the subsequent appeal decision which overturned his conviction and ordered a new trial. In so doing, this study will attempt to address the pertinent legal questions surrounding the prosecution of hate crimes in Canada, most notably the concept of "wilful promotion of hatred." Similarly, this paper will assess the defences against a charge of wilfully promoting hatred that exist within Canadian law and whether or not these defences strengthen or weaken an individual's freedom of expression as contained in Section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following September 11, 2001, the FBI reported a 1600% spike in violent hate crimes against Arab Americans in the United States. This level has since dropped though it has never returned to the pre 9/11 rate. Terror management theory (TMT), which assumes that people possess a strong penchant for self-preservation, may offer insight into this increased violence and the lack of public outcry surrounding such crimes. TMT asserts that when people are made aware of their own mortality, they have a tendency to express negative or aggressive attitudes toward those who threaten their own worldview. Under TMT, crime is generally considered a worldview threat and so mortality salience increases punitive attitudes towards offenders. Hate crimes represent a specific crime, however, in which there may be worldview conflicts between not only offender and victim but also between the victim and members of the general public. The purpose of the current research is to examine whether punitive attitudes toward criminal offenders following mortality salience are attenuated if the victim of the crime represents a member of a perceived out-group. A two-phase experimental study examines the effects of mortality salience on punitive attitudes towards perpetrators of Arab American hate crimes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been significant growth over the last fifteen years in the recognition and study of hate crimes. However, there is still relatively little empirical scholarship in this area. Most hate crimes research has been psychological, looking at offender motivations as well as victim experiences. Recently studies have examined the differences in the characteristics of hate crimes across places. Drawing on Green, Strolovitch and Wong's (1998) defended neighborhoods hypothesis and racial threat, I examine variation in the level of hate crimes across a sample of US counties. Using data from the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and variables from the Decennial Census this paper attempts to explain spatial variation in the amount of hate crimes, paying particular attention to regional differences. Previous studies have found differences in the characteristics of hate crime in the South. Also, many types of crime are more prevalent in the South. Drawing on these previous findings and the theories of defended neighborhoods and racial threat, it is expected there will be more racially motivated bias crimes in the South and the immigration of minority groups and the changing economic conditions of the areas will contribute to higher levels of these crimes as well. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hate crimes present a unique brand of violence. Compared to their non-bias motivated counterparts, hate crimes' inherent potential for harm is increased appreciably by victim interchangeability and secondary victimization; additionally, bias crime can escalate from individual conflicts to mass disturbances. These features of hate crimes render them subject to penalty enhancements under law in the United States. However, analysis of the current implementation of penalty enhancements illustrates the discord between their intended purpose and that which they ultimately serve. Penalty enhancements are overwhelmingly punitive and offender based. The unique harm of hate crimes, and justification for penalty enhancements is victim-based. The restorative justice model offers an alternative. An implementation styled on restorative justice addresses those aspects of hate crimes which warrant the enhancement. This paper employs the terminology of restorative justice style. Rather than adhering strictly to the restorative model, the process at issue will take place within the system and its goal will be to provide a restorative component which may differ from the sentencing goal for the underlying offense. The restorative justice model serves the needs of penalty enhancements without being impeded by controversy concerning its standing as a goal or model of punishment. This has the greatest potential for effectiveness with juveniles convicted of misdemeanors. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2001, according the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS), less than 20 hate crimes occurred in a "Middle City" a mid-sized metropolitan area in the heartland of the United States. However, our query of Middle City's law enforcement Management Information System yielded more than 1,000 potential hate crime incidents (where the police report narrative suggested some evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. In this paper, we report preliminary findings from an analysis of these incident reports. The patrol officer is an under-studied dimension to hate crime classification. He or she initiates the report and provides the substantive context through which hate crimes are defined. Our focus in this paper is on the ways in which the patrol officer "sees" the crime as articulated in the narrative of the report. Through this analysis, we will draw policy relevant implications for both hate crime measurement and patrol officer training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anti-gay hate crimes constitute a serious national problem. This form of victimization is particularly unique in that it targets a victim's identity. In surveys targeting this population, as many as 92% of lesbians and gay men report that they have been the targets of antigay verbal abuse or threats, and as many as 24% report physical attacks because of their sexual orientation. Further, research to date indicates that victims of hate motivated crime face unique psychological and behavioral reactions to the experience of victimization. Through the use of survey methodology and snowball sampling, this research serves as a qualitative exploratory pilot study assessing anti-gay hate crime victimization among a college population. This study will attempt to specifically examine psychological and behavioral outcomes, coping mechanisms, and the potential role of stigmatization in hate crimes targeted at this unique population. Findings, future research endeavors, and policy implications will be discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]