Text and Context of Malediction: A Study of Antisemitic and Heterosexist Hate Violence

Hate crime research has gone through several ebbs and flows over the last twenty years. At times, acts of horrific brutality have brought the issue of hate violence into the public imagination; sometimes resulting in legislative and policing changes. However, these changes in hate crime regulation are not universal, even in Western democratic states. In relation to hate violence, contemporary Australian research has begun to address the inconsistent application of law, public policy and policing practice. However, the issue of ‘hate speech’ has remained largely uninterrogated. Equally, research has tended to focus on the unique characteristics of specific forms of hate violence, rather than assess the conditions of exclusion shared by disparate groups. This book remedies both of these deficiencies by providing a critical analysis of the role of hate speech in hate violence, and offering a comparative investigation of anti-Semitic and heterosexist violence.