Islamophobic hate crime continues to be a significant social problem throughout the United Kingdom. It is now well established that hate crimes can cause heightened levels of anger, fear and anxiety amongst those who are directly targeted. However, it has largely been assumed that such incidents have negative emotional and social impacts on other members of the victim’s community. Using a large scale survey, this chapter will provide the first quantitative examination of the indirect (community) impacts of hate crimes on members of UK Muslim communities. The study found that simply knowing a victim of an Islamophobic hate crime can have emotional and behavioural effects that are comparable with those who have experienced direct forms of victimisation. This indirect experience was found to increase other group members’ perceptions of threat and their feelings of anger and anxiety. In addition, they were more likely to report avoidant and security-related behavioural intentions and hold negative attitudes towards the Government and certain criminal justice agencies. However, not all impacts were intrinsically negative to community wellbeing. Indirect victimisation was also found to have a mobilising effect on Muslim communities, with many individuals likely to experience enhanced ties to their community and a strengthening of their Muslim identity.

This article examines the indirect impacts of hate crimes on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and Muslim communities in the United Kingdom. Based on 34 qualitative interviews, we explore both the perceived meaning of ‘community’ in the context of targeted victimization and the emotional and behavioural effects that anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and Islamophobic hate crimes have on other members of the victim’s group. Building on previous quantitative data undertaken as part of a larger programme of research, this study helps to explain how and why hate crimes have significant indirect consequences on two distinct but commonly targeted communities. The focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and Muslim communities allowed us to draw out similarities and commonalities across different groups, further enhancing the understanding of the impacts of hate crime. In particular, the article highlights how for many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and Muslim people feelings of anger and anxiety about hate crimes were linked to enhanced levels of empathy towards those that they share a group identity with. These empathic bonds often gave rise to a sense of ‘shared suffering’, with participants frequently feeling connected to group members worldwide through their common experiences of hate and prejudice. Although group identity was important to many participants’ sense of belonging to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender or Muslim communities, it was clear that the most profound impacts of hate crime were experienced when incidents occurred within someone’s local area. This highlighted the importance of location as a key variable in understanding both the meaning of ‘community’ and the indirect impacts of hate crime.

A longitudinal study (N = 774) explored the short and longer term impacts of anti-Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans (LGBT) hate crime experienced directly, indirectly, and through the media. In the short term, being a victim (direct) or personally knowing of a hate crime victim (indirect) was positively associated with vulnerability, emotional responses, and behavioral intentions after reading about a hate crime. Direct victims were also less empathic toward other victims and engaged in more victim-blaming. A structural equation model showed direct experiences (via personal vulnerability and empathy) and media experiences (via group-threat and victim-blaming) to be cross-sectionally associated with behavioral intentions. Media experiences also had lasting demobilizing impacts on actual behaviors, again serially mediated by group-threat and victim-blaming. The findings highlight the emotional and behavioral impacts of hate crimes on both direct victims and on the wider LGBT community. They also raise questions about media reporting of hate crimes and the role of victim-blaming.

In two experimental studies (N = 120; N = 102), we apply intergroup emotions theory (IET) to examine the effects of hate crime on other community members. With participants from an oft‐targeted group – Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans people, we are the first to show empirically that hate crimes elicit more pronounced emotional and behavioural responses in other members of the victims’ community than comparable non‐hate crimes. The findings also reveal the psychological processes behind these effects. Consistent with IET, hate crimes were seen to pose more of a group‐based threat and so led to heightened emotional reactions (anger and anxiety) and, subsequently, to behavioural intentions (avoidance and pro‐action). Importantly, we also show that hate crime victims, due to increased perceptions of similarity, received more empathy than non‐hate crime victims. Such empathy, although neglected in previous research, was shown to be a potential mediator in understanding the indirect effects of hate crime. Results are discussed in terms of their contribution to psychological theory and their potential to support the argument for the utility and appropriateness of hate crime legislation.

Hate crimes against LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans) individuals have been shown to indirectly impact other members of the community (e.g., Noelle, 2002). However, as the LGBT ‘community’ is a diverse grouping of individuals with various sexual and gender identities, we examined experimentally whether reactions were enhanced when participants shared specific sub-identities with the victim (N=126). Results indicate that, while sub-group identities may be important, they do not affect the reactions to anti-LGBT hate crimes above and beyond the superordinate LGBT identity. Instead, further correlational analyses revealed that perceived similarity to the targeted characteristic better explains the community impacts of hate crimes. We show that this similarity increases empathy for the victim which, in turn, heightens subsequent emotional reactions and related behavioural responses. The results show the utility of adding intra-group perceptions to Intergroup Emotions Theory (e.g., Mackie & Smith, 2015) to better understand the community impacts of hate crimes

Based on a survey of 593 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the United Kingdom, this study shows that direct anti-LGBT hate crimes (measured by direct experiences of victimization) and indirect anti-LGBT hate crimes (measured by personally knowing other victims of hate crime) are highly prolific and frequent experiences for LGBT people. Our findings show that trans people are particularly susceptible to hate crimes, both in terms of prevalence and frequency. This article additionally highlights the negative emotional and (intended) behavioral reactions that were correlated with an imagined hate crime scenario, showing that trans people are more likely to experience heightened levels of threat, vulnerability, and anxiety compared with non-trans LGB people. The study found that trans people are also more likely to feel unsupported by family, friends, and society for being LGBT, which was correlated with the frequency of direct (verbal) abuse they had previously endured. The final part of this study explores trans people’s confidence levels in the Government, the police, and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in relation to addressing hate crime. In general, trans people felt that the police are not effective at policing anti-LGBT hate crime, and they are not respectful toward them as victims; this was especially true where individuals had previous contact with the police. Respondents were also less confident in the CPS to prosecute anti-LGBT hate crimes, though the level of confidence was slightly higher when respondents had direct experience with the CPS. The empirical evidence presented here supports the assertion that all LGBT people, but particularly trans individuals, continue to be denied equal participation in society due to individual, social, and structural experiences of prejudice. The article concludes by arguing for a renewed policy focus that must address this issue as a public health problem.

Cross-group romantic relationships are an extremely intimate and often maligned form of intergroup contact. Yet, according to intergroup contact theory, these relationships have the potential to improve the intergroup attitudes of others via extended contact. This study combines the interpersonal and intergroup literatures to examine the outcomes associated with knowing a partner in a cross-group romantic relationship. Results suggest that cross-group romantic partners encounter greater disapproval toward their relationships than same-group partners and, as a result, their relationships are perceived more negatively. Nevertheless, extended contact with cross-group partners, controlling for participants' cross-group friendships and romantic relationships, predicts more positive attitudes toward cross-group dating and positive intergroup attitudes in general, mediated by perceived ingroup norms toward cross-group relationships.

In this short report we summarise some of our key findings from the quantitative surveys and experiments (with over 1400 respondents) and which are yet to be published. Some of the data below on police perceptions are aggregated into two areas: London (serviced by the Metropolitan Police Service) and all other areas in England and Wales. This allows for a comparison between the country’s largest city (and largest police service) with the rest of the country

Here we review recent developments in the field of indirect intergroup contact, an extension of the classic Contact Hypothesis. Three forms of indirect contact are assessed: extended, vicarious and imagined. The strengths and limitations of each are evaluated. Although not as potent as direct contact, indirect forms of contact generally offer a more diverse set of practical solutions for reducing prejudice, especially in challenging contexts where direct contact may be infrequent or impossible.