Hate crimes and masculinity : new crimes, new responses and some familiar patterns

![CDATA[In recent decades, researchers, activists and policymakers have described a wider range of criminal incidents (including assaults, harassment, vilification and attacks on property) as forms of ‘hate crime’. These crimes are generally understood as motivated by perpetrators’ deep hostility to the (real or presumed) social group identity of victims: most often their location within racial, ethnic, sexual or religious minorities. This development has allowed for further research and new preventive and criminal justice measures in regard to previously disregarded or downplayed forms of criminal and criminogenic activity. But ‘hate crime’ is a problematic label that may narrowly represent criminal motive and simplify the interpretation of victimisation and offending. Current research on anti-homosexual and race-related crime will be discussed to demonstrate the continuous positioning of working class and socially disadvantaged males in offending patterns and the interrelationship of ‘hate crime’ to the more general dilemmas of reducing crime rates with the successful social integration of marginalised young men.]]