ABSTRACT
This chapter presents findings from an ethnographic study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council which took place across two phases, first in the spring of 2009 and, second, between May 2010 and June 2011. The aim of the research was to explore victims’ perceptions and experiences of racist hate crime in light of the victim-centred definition of ‘hate crime’ adopted by the criminal justice system in England and Wales. Accepted on the recommendation of the Macpherson report (1999), which investigated the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) defined (at that time) a hate incident as:
Any incident, which may or may not constitute a criminal offence, which is perceived by the victim or any other person, as being motivated by prejudice or hate.
(ACPO, 2005: paragraph 2.2.1)