SPSSI/EASP Joint Meeting on Understanding Hate Crimes: Multi-Disciplinary Analyses
Organisers: Rupert Brown and Mark Walters (Sussex University),
Blair T. Johnson and Megan Iacocca (University of Connecticut)
Small Group Meeting on Hate Crime (of around 24 researchers) at the University of Connecticut.
The problem of hate crime (bias crime) in many societies is regrettably growing rather than diminishing. In Europe and the US increases over the past two years have been observed, many of these incidents following international ‘trigger events’ including major geo-political conflicts and/or high profile terrorist attacks. Hate crime is a significant concern to policy-makers and social scientists alike, not least because of the deleterious effects it has on those directly victimised, but also because it is commonly assumed that incidents have harmful indirect impacts on other members of the victim’s identity group and on societal cohesion more generally.
Given the globalised nature of hate crime, with all its social psychological, political, criminological and legal ramifications, we believe it is imperative that an international and multidisciplinary approach be adopted. Thus, we invite behavioural scientists, legal scholars, criminologists, political scientists, social workers, human rights scholars, and policy-makers to take part. As well as established researchers, we hope also to attract doctoral and postdoctoral scholars so that they may benefit from exchanging ideas and study results with their more senior colleagues.
A variety of presentation formats are envisaged. The majority will comprise 30 minute presentations followed by a period of questions and discussion. There may also be some panel discussions in which panel members will have a few minutes to outline a new research agenda or theoretical perspective, followed by a wider discussion amongst participants. We intend to exploit both the small size of the meeting and the extensive time available to us to facilitate as much productive discussion as possible. Attendees will hear about new hate crime research and will be able to network with leading experts outside of psychology, swap ideas across jurisdictions and between disciplines, and form new research collaborations.
Graduate students, faculty members, and policy makers are all invited to apply for attendance.