CCJS Hosts Professor Neil Chakraborti for Annual Lecture on 'Rehumanising the Harms of Hate'

Neil Chakraborti is Professor of Criminology, Co-Director of the Centre for Hate Studies and Director of the Institute for Policy at the University of Leicester.

On 5 March 2025, the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies was delighted to host Professor Neil Chakraborti to deliver the Centre’s Annual Lecture on ‘Rehumanising the Harms of Hate’.

Motivated by a commitment to empirical, evidence-based knowledge and impact-driven research, Professor Chakraborti has been commissioned by a diverse range of funding bodies to undertake studies of hate crime victimisation, perpetration and policy making. Over the past 10 years, Professor Chakraborti and his team at the Centre for Hate Studies have engaged extensively with as many as 6,000 members of so-called ‘hard-to-reach’ communities, 2,000 victims of hate crime, and more than 1,000 senior professionals and frontline practitioners. This process of connecting with a very diverse set of voices has facilitated a much clearer picture of how hate crime is enacted, experienced and responded to. His current projects include  ‘Rural Racism: Re-storying Life in the English Countryside’, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, and ‘A Catalyst for Change: Tackling Harassment in Higher Education’, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

The lecture’s main theme was ‘revisiting the harms of hate’ from the viewpoint of victims who have been marginalized in policy and scholarship. The discourse surrounding the harms inflicted by hate crimes continues to evolve, which underscores the multifaceted nature of hate crime victimization, including the psychological, physical, and structural harms that often go unaddressed. 

Amidst the surge of continued violence towards communities, Professor Chakraborti argued that it is crucial to address violence targeting marginalised communities marked out as ‘different’ by various characteristics. Many victims tend to be targeted on the basis of multiple identity characteristics; therefore, it is important to remember the interplay between different markers of self, situational factors and the continuum of victimisation. His body of research has highlighted that the vast majority of hate crime victims are targeted on a repeat basis and yet fewer than one in four report any of their experiences of hate incidents to the police or other organisations in a position to offer support.

Professor Chakraborti shared testimonies from hate crime victims who had little desire to engage with a criminal justice system which they perceived to be bewildering, intimidating and ineffective, and who instead called for greater investment towards the development of educational programmes, community-based interventions and safer online environments to help address the prejudices that give rise to hate incidents.

Professor Chakraborti underlined “the value of re-humanisation as a tool to challenge a pervasive process of de-humanisation”. According to his research, re-humanisation has tremendous potential and value, and it helps us to recognize these issues within their wider social, cultural and political frameworks.

A decade after his original research, Professor Chakraborti undertook the ‘Revisiting the Harms of Hate’ project to reflect upon the relevance of his original research methodologies and findings. The study was funded by the Leverhulme Trust and was conducted through an ethnographic approach and qualitative interviews with disadvantaged victims who occupy a peripheral status within research and policy frameworks. He reconnected with some of these research participants to assess how their experiences of hate crime had been affected by a decade characterised by economic austerity, online toxicity, political volatility, a hostile environment towards issues of immigration and asylum, and a series of extraordinary events including Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic. The ‘revisiting project’ showcases the distinct set of harms experienced by particular groups who find themselves at the margins of what they perceive to be mainstream society.

Professor Chakraborti shared some of the harrowing experiences of his research participants, and in doing so outlined four sets of harms which emerged through his analysis. This includes the harms of being ‘marginal’ where distinctions within and between minoritised communities can often be subsumed as part of broad-brush depictions which essentialise their experiences, perceptions and behaviours as well as the harms of being ’different’ which increase the risks for targeted victims not just because of their identity characteristics but also because of their perceived vulnerability, visible or audible ‘otherness’ and depiction as socially ‘undesirable’. Furthermore, the project illustrates how different harms associated with verbal, physical and digital hate incidents are reinforced by different forms of structural hostility which are embedded within the architecture of institutional responses. The research study also teased out examples of the harms associated with living in times of crises, where social disadvantage, economic hardship and the hemorrhaging of support services conspire to intensify the impacts of hate incidents for those victims who are most likely to encounter hostile behaviours

These stories of harms were depicted through a film, produced as part of the research project, called ‘Revisiting the Harms of Hate’. The film allowed people to speak with their own voice to different audiences and to acknowledge the embedded prejudices which expose and exacerbate the harms arising from individual experiences of hate crime. It narrated the stories of pains and harassment towards individuals from faith minorities, those with learning disabilities, trans people and homeless individuals.

Professor Chakraborti concluded the lecture by emphasising the importance of framing responses to hate around the needs and expectations of victims. Some of these recommendations included:

• To be treated with empathy and warmth
• To be able to access reporting and support pathways
• To know that they are being dealt with by a professional with specialist training
• To be reassured that ‘everyday’ hate incidents will be taken seriously
• To see misinformation about stigmatised communities dispelled

These and other evidence-based recommendations will feed into a new national ‘Manifesto for Change’ which Professor Chakraborti is developing with colleagues at the Centre for Hate Studies. At a time where we see deepening divisions and a justice system stretched to breaking point, and nearly a decade since the government last produced a hate crime action plan without any form of oversight or evaluation, this Manifesto for Change will form the basis of a fresh strategy through which to tackle the harms of hate. Alongside hate crime prevention charity, Protection Approaches, the Centre for Hate Studies are currently leading a national consultation to collect evidence from victims, civil society organisations, academic experts, policy makers and criminal justice professionals in order to shape the foundations of a new hate crime strategy which will be launched in Parliament later this year.

Following the lecture, a stimulating question and answer session took place, during which colleagues, guests, and attendees shared their questions and insights on the key themes explored in the talk. This addressed a range of related issues, including how victims speak about wider experiences of harms inflicted on others; the importance of receiving therapeutic and peer support, both for the researchers undertaking emotionally challenging topics and for research participants; the value of understanding hate crime not just as a criminal justice issue but also a public health issue; and the merits of conceiving of misogyny as a hate crime.

The event was very well received. Thanks were extended to Professor Chakraborti for his valuable contributions to this crucial topic.