Abstract:

In the U.K., Europe and USA hate crime, sometimes also known as bias crime, has been established in academic research, policy development and recognised in legal frameworks for over 30 years'. Expanding hate crimeprotected characteristics, namely the groups that have legal recognition as potential hate crime victims, raises the prospect that other acts of violence committed against groups and individuals because of a perceivedor actual characteristic beyond, for example, disability, racial, religious, and sexual orientation could and should constitute hate crime. It also highlights that the category ‘hate crime’ is both slippery and porous, its meaning contested and not fixed to those who can claim hate crime victim status. The caste system and caste violence is well documented and researched but often not discussed as a form of hate crime. This presentation will explore the concept of hate crime as it is currently applied in Europe and the USA and discuss how caste violence maybe constructed as a form of hate violence.

About the Speaker:

Kusminder Chahal is based at Coventry University, UK and was a Visiting Research Fellow at Arizona State University, USA through 2016-17. He is currently writing an inclusion and diversity toolkit, researching hatecrime and building projects with colleagues from across the USA. With over 25 years’ research and training experience he has trained over 5000 professionals in diversity and inclusion, published and spoken locally,nationally and internationally on his research areas that include racist violence, hate crime, diversity and inclusion and community engagement. In December, 2016 he published “Supporting Victims of Hate Crime: APractitioner Guide”(https://policypress.co.uk/supporting-victims-of-hate-crime.