Critical hate studies: A new perspective
| Author | Zoë James,Katie McBride |
| Date | 01 January 2022 |
| DOI | 10.1177/02697580211037854 |
| Published date | 01 January 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Critical hate studies:
A new perspective
Zoe
¨James
University of Plymouth, UK
Katie McBride
University of Plymouth, UK
Abstract
This paper sets out a critical perspective that cohesively explains why hate happens in late mod-
ernity and its impact on the lived experience of victims. The paper challenges existing theoretical
accounts of hate by presenting a psycho-social approach to subjectivity that acknowledges the
impact of neoliberal capitalism on the lived experience. By doing so, the paper is able to account for
the extremities of hate in society and its apparent normalcy. In conclusion, the paper argues that an
interrogation of the extent of the harms of hate should be framed within a positive discourse
wherein the human need to flourish, rather than survive, is recognised.
Keywords
Hate, bias-motivated violence, neoliberalism, capitalism, recognition
Introduction
In 1959 Wright Mills referred to the ‘deadly unspecified malaise’ (1959: 11) that people might
experience if they lack values while simultaneously experiencing a sense of threat in society. This
paper endeavours to engage with the contemporary realisation of this malaise that manifests as
hate. Hate studies have researched bias-motivated behaviours that range from crimes to micro-
aggressions. This paper aims to theoretically place the range of those behaviours and their impacts
within the context of a wider appreciation of harm in society. The premise of critical hate studies is
simple: for an actual appreciation of bias-motivated harms to occur, it is necessary to routinely
consider the contemporary neoliberal capitalist
1
context within which they arise and that has
shaped the subjective lived experience of hate victims and perpetrators. In this paper, we set out
Corresponding author:
Professor Zoe
¨James, School of Society and Culture, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, Devon PL4 8AA, UK.
Email: z.james@plymouth.ac.uk
International Review of Victimology
2022, Vol. 28(1) 92–108
ªThe Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/02697580211037854
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the genesis for this work and our proposal for a critical hate studies perspective to provide a
framework within which critical thinkers can inform and develop hate studies as part of crimin-
ological endeavour.
Hate studies have developed over recent decades as an explicit attempt to challenge offending
behaviour that is motivated by some sort of prejudice towards an individual’s identity.
2
The
notion of ‘hate’ itself is problematic as it constitutes discussion of emotions or affects that are
bodily experienced (Pardy, 2011), whilst subjectively generated (Winlow, 2014) and politically
imbued (Szanto and Slaby, 2020). Hate studies have focused their attention on an applied
appreciation of bias-motivated actions and their consequences while retaining the moniker of
‘hate’, in part as recognition of the consequences of such emotionally driven actions and in part
as a powerful slogan to elicit attention within competitive academic and policy environments.
Originally having grown out of the civil rights movement in the USA, studies of bias-motivated
offending, hate incidents and speech have burgeoned more recently in the UK and Europe.
Beyond Europe hate studies have also expanded as evidenced by the breadth of papers presented
at the International Network for Hate Studies conferences 2018 and 2020. Official categories of
hate victims based on perceived identities have expanded to include legally protected charac-
teristics and officially recognised police categories of disability, race, religion or belief, sexual
orientation and transgender identity (James, 2015; McBride, 2018; Sherry, 2010). In addition,
empirical research in this area has encompassed other communities such as the homeless, goths
and sex workers (Ellison and Smith, 2017; Garland, 2010; Wachholz, 2005), as well as noting the
intersectional nature of identities and hate offending (Meyer, 2014). Numerous examples of hate
behaviours have attained media attention and induced scholarly condemnation as evidence of a
polarising Western society (van Noorloos, 2014), such as the hate-motivated shooting that took
place in the Orlando LGBT Pulse nightclub on a Latinx night in 2016 (Stonehem, 20 16).
Brudholm and Johansen (2018) note how hate fuelled the terror and extremism that followed
the UK vote to exit the European Union and the election of Donald Trump in the USA in the same
year. Such events have engendered critique of the capacity for multiculturalism to succeed in
contemporary society and a nihilistic approach towards social change, growth and development.
We would argue, however, that social theory has failed to explain effectively how hate has
manifested in contemporary society and thus a positive discourse for change has been negated
both within the academy and within wider social dialogue.
3
Theoretical discussion in hate
studies has often focused on a critique of the notion of hate itself (Jacobs and Potter, 1998).
This is despite the fact that the majority of scholars in the area have carried out empirical work
that has evidenced hate as part of the victim and perpetrator experience of bias-motivated harms
(see, e.g., Chakraborti et al., 2014). Further, policy is now commonly framed using hate as a core
concept (Home Office, 2016). Therefore, however bias-motivated harms are termed, they are
part of contemporary discussion and have attained political traction as an area for concern. As
such, it is necessary to develop a more nuanced critical account of how and why hate happens in
order to actualise positive mechanisms for change.
In the first instance, this paper sets out existing theoretical perspectives in hate studies, specif-
ically focusing on Barbara Perry’s work (2001, 2006) as having provided the critical backbone of
theory in this area in recent decades (Hall, 2015). By scrutinising existing theory, we are then able
to identify the two key areas of concern that hate scholars have been largely unable to explain using
current critical theory: patterns of hate offending and perpetrator motivations. Hate scholars have
utilised multiple theories to attempt an explanation of these concerns. Walters (2011) has sug-
gested that by combining critical thinking with control theory and strain theory a more complex
James and McBride 93
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