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Ensuring Justice for Hate Crime Victims: Professional Perspectives Europe Direct Is a Service to Help You Find Answers to Your Questions About the European Union

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Ensuring Justice for Hate Crime Victims: Professional Perspectives Europe Direct Is a Service to Help You Find Answers to Your Questions About the European Union JUSTICE FRA Ensuring justice for hate crime victims: professional perspectives professional crime victims: hate for Ensuring justice Ensuring justice for hate crime victims: professional perspectives Europe Direct is a service to help you find answers to your questions about the European Union. Freephone number (*): 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 (*) The information given is free, as are most calls (though some operators, phone boxes or hotels may charge you). Photo (cover): © Shutterstock More information on the European Union is available on the internet (http://europa.eu). FRA – European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights Schwarzenbergplatz 11 – 1040 Vienna – Austria Tel. +43 158030-0 – Fax +43 158030-699 Email: [email protected] – fra.europa.eu Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2016 Paper: 978-92-9491-258-9 10.2811/758410 TK-04-16-289-EN-C PDF: 978-92-9491-259-6 10.2811/963973 TK-04-16-289-EN-N © European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2016 Reproduction is authorised, provided the source is acknowledged. Printed in Luxembourg Printed on process chlorine-free recycled paper (PCF) Ensuring justice for hate crime victims: professional perspectives Foreword Hate crime is the most severe expression of discrimination and a core fundamental rights abuse. It demeans victims and calls into question an open society’s commitment to pluralism and human dignity. The European Union (EU) has demonstrated its resolve to tackle hate crime with legislation such as the 2008 Framework Decision on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law. Nonetheless, the majority of hate crimes perpetrated in the EU remain unreported, unprosecuted and therefore invisible, leaving victims without redress for their suffering. It is essential for EU Member States to take measures to prevent such crimes from taking place, but it is equally impor- tant to ensure that victims have access to justice. This means enabling them to report their experiences to competent institutions, and then providing them with the support they need. At the same time, hate crime must be promptly and effectively investigated, and the perpetrators punished. The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) has already produced extensive research on victims of crime, including with a specific focus on victims of hate crime. This report offers important insights from the per- spectives of professionals. Drawing on interviews with representatives of criminal courts, public prosecutors’ offices, the police and non-governmental organisations involved in supporting hate crime victims, it sheds light on the com- plexities that victims face in reporting as well as the organisational and procedural factors that impede their access to justice and the proper recording of hate crime. Underscoring the diverse challenges involved, this report addresses the difficulties encountered by professionals in applying the concepts of hate crime, the risk that police officers may share the discriminatory attitudes of offenders, victims’ potential lack of trust in the police, and the problem of discriminatory attitudes being overlooked in court proceedings. However, it also presents numerous promising developments across the EU, and identifies the institu- tional preconditions necessary to develop effective policy against hate crime. The 2012 Directive establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime acknowl- edges that hate crime victims are particularly vulnerable and stresses their right to protection in accordance with their particular needs. EU Member States should strive to improve access to justice for such victims, both by supporting victims in reporting their experiences to the police and by improving the police and judiciary’s responses. This report aims to encourage such efforts. Michael O’Flaherty Director 3 Contents FOREWORD ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND FRA OPINIONS ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 7 INTRODUCTION ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 13 1 PROFESSIONALS’ VIEWS ON HATE CRIME ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 17 1.1. Grounds of discrimination ........................................................................................................................................ 17 1.2. Public discourse ......................................................................................................................................................... 19 1.3. Cyber hate .................................................................................................................................................................. 21 1.4. Weaknesses of conceptual frameworks .............................................................................................................. 22 Conclusions and FRA opinions .......................................................................................................................................... 25 2 VICTIMS OF HATE CRIME REPORTING TO THE POLICE ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 27 2.1. Victims’ underreporting significantly impairs the criminal justice system’s response to hate crime ........ 27 2.2. Reasons for underreporting ................................................................................................................................... 28 2.3. Professionals’ views of on what is most needed to improve reporting .......................................................... 33 Conclusions and FRA opinions .......................................................................................................................................... 34 3 PROVIDING ACCESS TO VICTIM SUPPORT SERVICES ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 37 3.1. Support available to hate crime victims ............................................................................................................... 37 3.2. Police referring victims of hate crime to support services ............................................................................... 39 Conclusions and FRA opinion ............................................................................................................................................ 40 4 ROLE OF THE POLICE IN ENCOURAGING VICTIMS TO REPORT, AND IN RECORDING AND INVESTIGATING HATE CRIME ������� 41 4.1. Measures adopted by the police to encourage and facilitate reporting .......................................................... 41 4.2. Recording hate crime and ensuring that bias motives are not overlooked .................................................... 44 4.3. Specialisation as a means of improving investigations ..................................................................................... 48 4.4. Skills training ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 48 4.5. Sensitisation .............................................................................................................................................................. 50 Conclusions and FRA opinions ........................................................................................................................................... 51 5 TRUST IN THE POLICE AND INSTITUTIONAL ASPECTS OF POLICE ORGANISATIONS ������������������������������������������������� 53 5.1. A lack of trust in the police ..................................................................................................................................... 53 5.2. Ensuring that policing is based in local communities ......................................................................................... 55 Conclusions and FRA opinions .......................................................................................................................................... 58 CONCLUDING REMARKS ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 61 REFERENCES ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 63 ANNEX: METHODOLOGY ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 67 5 List of figures and tables Figures Figure 1: Interviewed experts from all professional groups assessing the severity of the violent attacks or threats of violence motivated by bias or directed against a certain perceived group of persons as a very or fairly serious problem (N=263, %) .................................................................... 17 Figure 2: Interviewed experts from all professional groups assessing the severity of the problem with regard to publicly inciting hostilities as a very or fairly serious problem (N=263, %) ........................
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