Palgrave Hate Studies

This book presents the first academic study offering a holistic assessment of violence against women (VAW) in Scotland, both online and offline. In particular, it focuses on VAW, hate crime, and online forms of violence against women (OVAW). It critically assesses the gaps in the hate crime protections in Scots Law, focusing specifically on the absence of legal protections for VAW, OVAW, hate crime, and gender-based violence, and it includes international comparisons throughout. Given the current upsurge in the abuse of women, this book offers a holistic assessment of the phenomenon of VAW and makes the case for pressing law reform in Scotland, specifically for legal protections against VAW and OVAW to be included within Scots Law. The book contains not only research findings but also makes practical recommendations for law and policy reform in the areas of hate crime, VAW and OVAW. As such, it contributes to Scotland’s progressive and leading approach to tackling violence against women and girls.

This book presents both a new theoretical framework for the criminalisation of hate, referred to as “law as social justice liberalism”, and a comprehensive analysis of hate crime laws that have been enacted globally. The book begins by reflecting back on 30 years of theorisation on hate crime laws, arguing that there has been a failure to adequately capture the distinct harms of hate-based criminal conduct within legal frameworks. The book posits that liberal societies interested in advancing social equality ought to expand conventional paradigms of harm used in criminal law by comprehending hate-based conduct as a form of social injustice. Drawing on the work of Iris Young, the book sets out a comprehensive analysis of the harms of hate crime as a form of group-based oppression and uses this to set out criteria for the inclusion of protected characteristics under legislation.

The second half of the book presents findings from a comparative study of hate crime lawsenacted in 190 different legal jurisdictions. This includes a new taxonomy of types, models and legal tests used by legislatures to capture the myriad forms of hate-based criminal conduct that occur globally. Further evaluation of case law and empirical research on the application of these diverging legislative approaches is used to provide recommendations on how legislators ought to construct hate crime laws. The book completes its analysis of law as social justice liberalism by synthesising law, punishment and restorative justice as a means of ensuring that liberal systems of “justice” are more firmly anchored to the advancement of “social justice”.

This book examines disability hate crime. It focusses on key questions concerning the ways in which hate is understood and experienced within the context of the everyday, in addition to the unique ways that hate can hurt and be resisted. It introduces readers to questions surrounding the conceptual framework of hate and policy context in England and Wales, and extends these discussions to center upon the experiences of disabled people. It presents a conceptual reconsideration of hate crime that connects hate, disability and everyday lives and spaces using an affective (embodied and emotional) understanding of these experiences. Drawing on empirical data, this framework helps to attend to the diverse ways that disabled people negotiate, respond to, and resist hate within the context of their everyday lives. The book argues that the affective capacity of disabled people can be enhanced through their reflections upon hateful experiences andgeneral experiences of navigating a disabling social world. By working with the concept of ‘affective possibility’, this book offers a more affirmative approach to harnessing the everyday forms of resistance already present within disabled people’s lives. It speaks to academics, students, and practitioners interested in disability, affect studies, hate crime studies, sociology, and criminology.

The World White Web provides an interdisciplinary analysis of far-right radicalisation in the digital age, drawing from criminology, history, and computer science to explore how technology and imagery accelerate extremist recruitment. The book examines 20,000 internet memes to reveal white supremacy’s deep historical roots. It demonstrates how far-right propagandists leverage historical narratives and symbols to influence modern-day recruitment, bridging fringe and mainstream ideas across diverse time periods, countries and contexts, amid technological and social changes. Topics include racism and xenophobia in Greek and Roman antiquity, antisemitism in the Middle Ages, anti-Black racism rooted in the Antebellum South, the weaponisation of the Reconquista in Spain, the memeification of the Rurik Dynasty in Russia, Crusader iconography in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, eco-fascist propaganda in the Balkans, neo-Nazi mythology in India, and Völkisch ideology in Germany and Austria. The book emphasises the importance of interdisciplinary, socio-technical and multi-stakeholder approaches to truly comprehend and address the contemporary manifestations and threats posed by the global interconnectedness of the far right online.

This book outlines the ways that disabled women experience unwanted touching and intrusive questions when navigating public space. Using the framework of feminist disability studies, this book takes an intersectional approach to fill a gap in the understanding of how disability and gender are factors in the nature and impacts of unwanted touching. It draws on research from over 70 women and non-binary people to elicit stories and examples, with some people living what some described as a ‘smaller life’. The methodology was a co-production with a disability activist. This book develops the new concept of Ableist Intrusions to investigate the nature and impacts of such experiences. It considers how non-disabled people should interact with disabled people in order to respect boundaries and bodies.

This two-volume edited collection showcases the work of leading scholars researching hate crime perpetration. It explores current research into hate crime perpetration, develops theoretical perspectives, and provides scholarly analysis of legal frameworks, policy responses and criminal justice practice. It seeks to understand how hate and intolerance manifest and are perpetrated. 

This Volume (II) focuses on developing responses to hate in online and offline settings while Volume I assesses offender profiles and motivation. Together they highlight links between different forms and arenas of hate crime offending and provides new perspectives on the nature of contemporary hate and intolerance, how it can be understood, and how it might be effectively tackled. 

This two-volume collection contends that ‘difference’ in all its forms can be targeted by vitriol and abuse across and beyond the recognised ‘five strands’ of hate crime law and policy in England and Wales (racist, religiously motivated, homophobic, transphobic and disablist) alongside broader behaviours that underpin intolerance (such as scapegoating, stereotyping and microaggressions). These volumes bring together a range of perspectives to provide the readers – be they students, academics, policy makers, practitioners or the general public – with a comprehensive understanding of this topic.

This two-volume edited collection showcases the work of leading scholars researching hate crime perpetration. It explores current research into hate crime perpetration, develops theoretical perspectives, and provides scholarly analysis of legal frameworks, policy responses and criminal justice practice. It seeks to understand how hate and intolerance manifest and are perpetrated. 

This Volume (I) focuses on offender profiles and motivation while Volume II examines developing responses to hate in online and offline settings. Together they highlight links between different forms and arenas of hate crime offending and provide new perspectives on the nature of contemporary hate and intolerance, how it can be understood, and how it might be effectively tackled. 

This two-volume collection contends that ‘difference’ in all its forms can be targeted by vitriol and abuse across and beyond the recognised ‘five strands’ of hate crime law and policy in England and Wales (racist, religiously motivated, homophobic, transphobic and disablist) alongside broader behaviours that underpin intolerance (such as scapegoating, stereotyping and microaggressions). These volumes bring together a range of perspectives to provide the readers – be they students, academics, policy makers, practitioners or the general public – with a comprehensive understanding of this topic.