HATE CRIME - 2021/2

Module Overview

This module aims to provide a broad historical, theoretical and contemporary understanding of the key issues relating to hate crime. Particular focus is placed on examining the different forms that hate crime can take and the impact of this crime on its victims, whilst the motivations behind perpetrators’ decisions to commit hate crime are also explored during the course of the module.

Whilst the problem of hate crime has been, until recently, largely neglected as a distinct area of criminological research in the UK, the changes to political and criminal justice agendas following events such as the publication of the Macpherson Report in 1999 and the terrorist attacks of 9/11 in the US and 7/7 in the UK have given hate crime much greater significance. The module relates to the degree programme more broadly by discussing policing, victimisation, legislation, the criminal justice system, offending and ideas of identity, within the hate crime context.

 

Module provider

Sociology

Module Leader

HALL Nathan (Sociology)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 6

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None  

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• The nature and extent of hate crime victimisation across a range of backgrounds, including minority ethnic, religious, lesbian and gay, transgender, disabled, refugee, migrant, Gypsy and Traveller and ‘alternative’ subcultural communities.


• The impact of this targeted victimisation upon those groups and the commonalities and differences between them.


• The utility of the various theories of hate crime victimisation and perpetration and their applicability to the many different forms of these offences.


• The response of the police service and other statutory and voluntary agencies to incidents of hate crime.


• The use and effectiveness of the aggravated offences and incitement legislation in the prevention and prosecution of hate crime

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate theoretical and practical in-depth knowledge of the multiple forms of hate crime and their impact.

• The essay therefore gives them the opportunity to discuss contemporary hate crime issues at length, while the assessed group presentation provides the chance to work in small teams while specialising in a hate crime area of interest

• Group presentations (30%), in week 9 of the module


• 2,500 word essay, handed in after the module’s completion

• Guidance on both forms of assessment is provided throughout the module. Detailed advice on group presentation is provided via separate guidelines

Module aims

• Provide an overview of the nature and forms that hate crime victimisation can take.
• Assess the impact that hate crime can have on individual victims and their wider communities.
• Debate the key theoretical explanations of the processes of victimisation and also the motivations of hate crime perpetrators.
• Examine the response of the police and other key agencies to incidents of hate crime.
• Analyse the effectiveness of the suite of hate crime legislation

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

• Provide students with the opportunity to learn about the natures, forms, extent and impact of hate crime and targeted victimisation, as well as the effectiveness of legal and other interventions designed to counter it

• Lectures, seminars, class discussions, short tests, formative assignment, group work – all incorporated within 11 weeks of one-hour lectures and one-hour seiminars.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: SOC3063

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2021/2 academic year.