EU SUGGESTED BEST PRACTICE DOCUMENT: CRITICAL ANALYSIS AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EU-WIDE HATE CRIME LAWS

This document subjects the various EU hate crime provisions to critical policy analysis, weighing up their pros and cons, and defending aspects of them from inappropriate forms of critique, and then draws some policy conclusions based on a sense of best practice. The aim of identifying best practice is to generate reform suggestions in the form of detailed model legislation. This is contained in the final section of this document. A key point considered is the narrow definition of protected groups under current EU measures. The restrictions to racist forms of hate crime and genocide denial contained in the Framework Decision is not central to the political and constitutional cultures of all member states. Indeed, it has not prevented the criminal law implementation measures of some EU Member States from including a number of other grounds, such as disability, anti-Semitism, or sexual orientation. Certain EU bodies have even encouraged this expansive approach to national implementation, with the FRA stating: ‘In the spirit of non-discrimination, it is certainly preferable to widen criminal law provisions to include equally all grounds of discrimination covered by Article 14 of the ECHR or Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.’ This criticism would, in practice, suggest a need for Members State supplementing these categories with one of more the following: gender, social origin, genetic features, language, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, birth, property or other status, disability, age or sexual orientation. Whilst supporting an expansion of the range of groups covered, the following paragraphs issue a cautionary warning against a massive extension to cover all these groups on grounds of both principle and practical consequences

'The Accidental Birth of Hate Crime in Transnational Criminal Law: 'Discrepancies' in the Prosecution for "Incitement to Genocide" during the Nuremberg Process involving the cases of Julius Streicher, Hans Fritzsche and Carl Schmitt.'

This volume of three interrelated studies aims to explore the various contingencies through which individuals responsible, to various degrees, for promoting expressions of racist hate were subjected to markedly different types of legal responses within the landmark Nuremberg trials programme. These contingencies, together with loose judicial reasoning, complicate scholarly efforts to identify the historical emergence of this type of transnational hate crime, and to illustrate the complications that arise when seeking to ascertain its implications as a precedent. It needs to be emphasised at the outset that what follows is not a comprehensive study of the origins of the criminalisation of hate speech in general as this would have to include a full comparative survey of all domestic laws and their judicial interpretation, application and institutional enforcement. In addition, the interaction between domestic, regional and international criminalisations would also have to be addressed in what would amount to a massive multi-volume study, beyond the scope of this study. It is acknowledged that a strong case can be made for a more comprehensive approach, placing the contents of what follows within this wider context of transnational regulation. For example, there has clearly been a measure of interaction, albeit of an inconsistent type, between US immigration and naturalisation law and practice, and international criminal law relating to hate speech, with the Streicher case expressly referred to as a precedent for the idea that "persecution," as a subset of crimes against humanity, can include racist and anti-Semitic propaganda

Exploring the Relationship between Membership Turnover and Productivity in Online Communities

One of the more disruptive reforms associated with the modern Internet is the emergence of online communities working together on knowledge artefacts such as Wikipedia and OpenStreetMap. Recently it has become clear that these initiatives are vulnerable because of problems with membership turnover. This study presents a longitudinal analysis of 891 WikiProjects where we model the impact of member turnover and social capital losses on project productivity. By examining social capital losses we attempt to provide a more nuanced analysis of member turnover. In this context social capital is modelled from a social network perspective where the loss of more central members has more impact. We find that only a small proportion of WikiProjects are in a relatively healthy state with low levels of membership turnover and social capital losses. The results show that the relationship between social capital losses and project performance is U-shaped, and that member withdrawal has significant negative effect on project outcomes. The results also support the mediation of turnover rate and network density on the curvilinear relationship

Doing Sustainable Trauma Research

This article reflects on the lessons that I’ve learnt on how to make trauma-intensive research a sustainable professional practice. I draw on my own experiences and emphasise, firstly, the development of a reliable ethical framework for trauma research, and, secondly, key aspects of self-care that can be woven into trauma research to ensure that the work enriches rather than defeats us

Organised Abuse and Testimonial Legitimacy

This paper will discuss the relationship between sexual abuse, invalidation and testimonial legitimacy with a particular focus on organised abuse. Using qualitative data drawn from a study of adult survivors of organised abuse, the paper emphasises how strategies of invalidation, disbelief and minimisation are embedded in children’s experiences of organised abuse as well as in the response of others to organised abuse throughout their lifespan. This analysis troubles the distinction between everyday and legalistic notions of credibility and emphasises instead how the denial of testimonial legitimacy to children and women in a range of contexts is underpinned by relations of power that compound the gendered risks and harms of sexual abuse. The findings of this study suggest that the denial of testimonial legitimacy is a serious barrier to the wellbeing and safety of victims of sexual abuse, such as those disclosing organised abuse, whose life histories render them particularly vulnerable to strategies of invalidation.Sydney Institute of Criminology; School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Sydne

Best practice hostage negotiator stress debriefings â a step toward PTSD symptom reduction

After a hostage negotiation incident, it is common practice for either no debriefing to occur or a formal, administration-attended debriefing to discuss issues and possible emotional as well as, psychological stressors with the hostage negotiation team members. However, many times negotiators are reluctant to be honest in front of administrators or supervisors about their weaknesses as they feel this will lead to termination or loss of service weapon. Little is known about what effect, if any, best practice hostage negotiation after incident debriefings would have given regarding possible psychological distresses on the negotiators as well as effects on team bonding. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate whether and how after incident hostage negotiation debriefing strategies lower PTSD symptoms among hostage negotiators. The theoretical framework for this study was Kelley\u27s followership theory. The sample was 12 negotiators from a local county negotiation team and a local city negotiation team. The research questions focused on hostage negotiator preference for debriefing strategies, honesty in debriefings in relation to stressors, opinions of the meeting\u27s effects on dealing with trauma, and effects on team bond building. The results were that peer run, peer driven debriefing strategies are most wanted and most effective for hostage negotiators. The positive social change implications are numerous, including a more effective, more mentally fit, and closer bonded hostage negotiation team capable of saving more lives who in turn will have a healthier family life, which will resonate into the community

Analysing Regionalism within International Law and Relations: The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation as a Grossraum?

This article argues for a new way of addressing contemporary international law that is more adequate to both vital dynamic trends towards “regionalism” within international law, relations and politics, and the emergent possibility of a far more pluralistic “multipolar” legal order that—in both theory and practice—contrasts markedly with US-dominated hegemonic modes of regulation and high-handed unilateralism. To advance our argument, we draws upon classic Schmittian forms of Grossraum theory concerned to adapt traditional state-centric and purely horizontal conceptual types of international law interpretations to a form of international relations structured around regional ensembles, such as the European Union, NATO, the African Union, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). These historical trends are emerging out of an encompassing contemporary developmental tendency, including the decline in the traditional nation state posited as having equal status, and both the proliferation of new regional bodies and the strengthening of existing ones. Arguably, the emergence of the SCO from 2001 signals a new phase in multilateralism in the post-Cold War period that, when treated as a case study, allows us to “test out” the credibility of key aspects of Grossraum theory