Quantifying Hate: The Evolution of German Approaches to Measuring ‘Hate Crime’

Abstract

This article examines and explains the rise of ‘hate crime’ as a category recognised by the German state. It documents the transition from a fluid and unspecific concern about violence against vulnerable groups in the immediate post-unification years to the formal adoption of ‘hate crime’ and its counterpart ‘right-wing politically motivated crime’ as official statistical categories. It uses theories of policymaking coupled with insights from scholarship on sociological uncertainty and policy transfer to explain the adoption, adaptation, and limitations of the hate crime concept in Germany.

Notes

1. V. Jenness and R. Grattet, Making Hate a Crime: From Social Movement to Law Enforcement (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2001), p.77.

2. See http://www.osce.org/item/22037.html, and the publications on hate crime by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, http://www.osce.org/odihr/.

3. J. Levin and J. McDevitt, Hate Crimes: The Rising Tide of Bigotry and Bloodshed (New York: Plenum Press, 1993); J.B. Jacobs and K. Potter, Hate Crimes: Criminal Law and Identity Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998); Jenness and Grattet, Making Hate a Crime.

4. J. Hagan, H. Merkens and K. Boehnke, ‘Delinquency and Disdain: Social Capital and the Control of Right-Wing Extremism Among East and West Berlin Youth’, The American Journal of Sociology 100/4 (1995), pp.1028–52; P.R. Ireland, ‘Socialism, Unification Policy and the Rise of Racism in Eastern Germany’, International Migration Review 31/3 (1997), pp.541–68; R. Koopmans, ‘Explaining the Rise of Racist and Extreme Right Violence in Western Europe: Grievances or Opportunities?’, European Journal of Political Research 30/2 (1996), pp.185–216; G. Krell, H. Nicklas and A. Ostermann, ‘Immigration, Asylum, and Anti-Foreigner Violence in Germany’, Journal of Peace Research 33/2 (1996), pp.153–70.

5. D.P. Green, L.H. McFalls and J.K. Smith, ‘Hate Crime: An Emergent Research Agenda’, Annual Review of Sociology 27/1 (2001), p.487.

6. As discussed below in depth, right-wing politically motivated crime is a close functional equivalent of a hate crime, as it includes acts undertaken on the grounds of nationality, ethnicity, race, skin color, religion, origins, outward appearance, handicap, sexual orientation, or social status, and also political belief or ideology.

7. W. Alonso and P. Starr (eds.), The Politics of Numbers (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1987); A. Desrosières, The Politics of Large Numbers: A History of Statistical Reasoning (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998); D.I. Kertzer and D. Arel (eds.), Census and Identity: The Politics of Race, Ethnicity, and Language in National Censuses (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002); M. Nobles Shades of Citizenship: Race and the Census in Modern Politics (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000).

8. C. Lees, ‘We Are All Comparativists Now: Why and How Single-Country Scholarship Must Adapt and Incorporate the Comparative Politics Approach’, Comparative Political Studies 39/9 (2006), pp.1084–108. We also follow Lees' suggestion to deploy evidence from foreign cases (where called for) to sharpen our analysis.

9. H. Heclo, Modern Social Politics in Britain and Sweden (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1974). For an excellent overview of the nearly innumerable variations on these themes in policymaking analysis, see W. Parsons, Public Policy: An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Policy Analysis (Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1995).

10. J.W. Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies (New York: HarperCollins, 2nd edition, 1995), pp.86–9.

11. We use this term as a catch-all category that includes scholarship on lesson-drawing, policy transfer, policy borrowing, imitation and institutional transfer, and ideational transfer. See R. Rose, Lesson-Drawing in Public Policy: A Guide to Learning in Time and Space (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers, Inc., 1993); C.J. Bennett, ‘How States Utilize Foreign Evidence’, Journal of Public Policy 11/1 (1991), pp.31–54; D.P. Dolowitz and D. Marsh, ‘Learning from Abroad: The Role of Policy Transfer in Contemporary Policy-Making’, Governance 13/1 (2000), pp.5–24; W. Jacoby, Imitation and Politics: Redesigning Modern Germany (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000); P.A. Hall (ed.), The Political Power of Economic Ideas: Keynesianism across Nations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989).

12. Especially Bennett, ‘How States Utilize Foreign Evidence’; and Rose, Lesson-Drawing in Public Policy.

13. Rose, Lesson-Drawing in Public Policy, p.31; P.A. Hall, ‘Conclusion: The Politics of Keynesian Ideas’, in P.A. Hall (ed.), The Political Power of Economic Ideas: Keynesianism across Nations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989), pp.361–91.

14. Heclo, Modern Social Politics.

15. Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies.

16. Ibid., pp.86–9.

17. See also F.R. Baumgartner and B.D. Jones, Agendas and Instability in American Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993) and T.A. Birkland, After Disaster: Agenda Setting, Public Policy, and Focusing Events (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. 1997).

18. Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies, pp.94–8.

19. Ibid., pp.109–13.

20. On uncertainty and the social construction of policy problems, see Parsons, Public Policy.

21. Jacobs and Potter, Hate Crimes; Jenness and Grattet, Making Hate a Crime.

22. Interview with Neil Stevenson, Home Office, Community Relations Unit, 19 November 2003.

23. Bennett, ‘How States Utilize Foreign Evidence’; Rose, Lesson-Drawing in Public Policy; Jacoby, Imitation and Politics; Hall, ‘Conclusion’.

24. J.P. Singer, ‘Erfassung der Politisch Motivierten Kriminalität’, Kriminalistik 58/1 (2004), p.33.

25. KPMD-S stands for Kriminalpolizeiliche Meldedienst Staatsschutz; see BMI/BMJ, Zweiter Periodischer Sicherheitsbericht (Berlin: Bundesministerium des Innern & Bundesministerium der Justiz, 2006), p.135.

26. The BKA is under the oversight of the Federal Ministry of the Interior.

27. BMI/BMJ, Zweiter Periodischer Sicherheitsbericht, p.135.

28. The Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz is specifically tasked with safeguarding the democratic system. It is also bureaucratically overseen by the Federal Ministry of the Interior.

29. Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, Verfassungsschutzbericht 1992 (Bonn: Bundesministerium des Innern, 1993), pp.92, 77–81.

30. With the exception of a passing reference to anti-Semitic crimes; see Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, Verfassungsschutzbericht 1993 (Bonn: Bundesministerium des Innern, 1994), p.103.

31. Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, Verfassungsschutzbericht 1993.

32. Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, Verfassungsschutzbericht 1994 (Bonn: Bundesministerium des Innern, 1995), p.91.

33. Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Annual Report 1998 (Berlin: Federal Ministry of the Interior, 1999), p.16.

34. See German Bundestag documents 14/3106, 14/3516, 14/4067 and 14/4145.

35. See http://www.buendnis-toleranz.de/.

36. Bundeskriminalamt, Rechtsextremismus, Antisemitismus und Fremdenfeindlichkeit: Bestandsaufnahme, Perspektiven, Problemlösungen – Vortäge anlässlich der Herbsttagung des Bundeskriminalamts vom 21. bis 23. November 2000 (Neuwied und Kriftel: Luchterhand, 2001), p.1.

37. Stern, 21 June 2000.

38. Süddeutsche Zeitung, 29 July 2000. It was later discovered this was not a classic hate crime because the victims were known to the perpetrator (communication with the Interior Ministry, 17 May 2006).

39. For an overview of the events of 2000, see FAZ, 19 March 2003; on the slow news summer, see the Tagesspiegel, 14 September 2000.

40. FAZ, 24 August 2000, 30 August 2000, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2 September 2000.

41. Süddeutsche Zeitung, 21 August 2000. The attempted ban failed spectacularly in 2001 when the Constitutional Court disallowed the procedure.

42. See Süddeutsche Zeitung, 5 October 2000.

43. On the influence of Panorama, see http://www.presseportal.de/story.htx?nr = 761098; on the story itself, see http://www.ndrtv.de/panorama/archiv/2000/0824.html.

44. See http://www.ndrtv.de/panorama/archiv/2000/0824.html, p.2.

45. See ibid., p.6.

46. Jansen was invited to speak publicly on this theme at the Autumn Meeting of the BKA in November 2000; see Bundeskriminalamt, Rechtsextremismus.

47. The Tagesspiegel and Frankfurter Rundschau are themselves left-leaning, a fact which undoubtedly helps to account for their interest in this issue. They are close enough to the middle of the political spectrum, however, that their findings were taken seriously.

48. See Tagesspiegel, 14 September 2000.

49. See Tagesspiegel, 22 September 2000.

50. See Tagesspiegel, 14 September 2000.

51. See Tagesspiegel, 22 September 2000; 51BMI/BMJ, Erster Periodischer Sicherheitsbericht der Bundesregierung (Berlin: Bundesministerium des Innern & Bundesministerium der Justiz, 2001), p.276; M. Holzberger, ‘Offenbarungseid der Polizeistatistiker. Registrierung rechtsextremistischer Straftaten’, Bürgerrechte & Polizei/CILIP 68/1 (2001), p.33; German Bundestag document 14/5456, p.7.

52. H. Kleffner and M. Holzberger, ‘War da was? Reform der polizeilichen Erfassung rechter Straftaten’, Bürgerrechte & Polizei/CILIP 77/1 (2004), p.56.

53. Tagesspiegel, 14 September 2000.

54. Tagesspiegel, 22 September 2000.

55. Holzberger, ‘Offenbarungseid der Polizeistatistiker, p.29.

56. Ibid., p.27; see also Tagesspiegel, 31 March 2001.

57. Holzberger, ‘Offenbarungseid der Polizeistatistiker’, p.27; B. Falk, ‘Anmerkungen zum polizeilichen Lagebild Rechtsextremismus, Antisemitismus und Fremdenfeindlichkeit’, in Bundeskriminalamt, Rechtsextremismus; S. Rühl, Study on Racist Violence of the German National Focal Point (Bamberg: European Forum for Migration Studies, 2002), p.12.

58. Holzberger, ‘Offenbarungseid der Polizeistatistiker’, p.27; Falk, ‘Anmerkungen’; see also Süddeutsche Zeitung, 23 November 2000.

59. Holzberger, ‘Offenbarungseid der Polizeistatistiker’, pp.31–2; O. Schily, ‘Eröffnungsansprache’, in Bundeskriminalamt, Rechtsextremismus; see also Tagesspiegel, 14 September 2000.

60. Rühl, Study on Racist Violence, p.12; see also Spiegel, 12 February 2001; FAZ, 14 March 2001.

61. Kleffner and Holzberger ‘War da was?’, p.56; Rühl, Study on Racist Violence, p.12; Singer, ‘Erfassung der Politisch Motivierten Kriminalität’, p.34.

62. Rühl, Study on Racist Violence, p.12; Holzberger, ‘Offenbarungseid der Polizeistatistiker’.

63. Rühl, Study on Racist Violence, p.12 and Jansen (Tagesspiegel, 31 March 2001) attribute the model to the United States, while the Bundeskriminalamt (Informationen, p.8) and the BMI (correspondence, 17 May 2006) merely refer to the ‘international’ concept or to knowledge from ‘other countries’.

64. This concept is also referred to as Hassverbrechen or Hasstaten.

65. Bundeskriminalamt, Informationen zum polizeilichen Definitionssystem Politisch motivierte Kriminalität (PMK) (Meckenheim: Bundeskriminalamt, 2004), pp.7–8.

66. Bundeskriminalamt, Informationen, p.8.

67. Interview with member of the German University of the Police, 16 June 2006.

68. See the BfV annual reports since 2001 as well as Bundeskriminalamt, Informationen.

69. Jenness and Grattet, Making Hate a Crime, p.77.

70. F.M. Lawrence, Punishing Hate: Bias Crimes under American Law (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), Appendix A. By comparison, British police forces are obligated to record hate crime motivated only by race, sexual orientation, faith and disability; see ACPO, Hate Crime: Delivering a Quality Service - Good Practice and Tactical Guidance (London: Home Office Police Standards Unit and Association of Chief Police Officers, 2005), p.10.

71. For an extended discussion of the cases incorporated into the PMK-R system, see BMI/BMJ, Zweiter Periodischer Sicherheitsbericht, pp.137–8.

72. Jenness and Grattet, Making Hate a Crime, p.45.

73. See the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act and the 2001 Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act.

74. OSCE/ODIHR, Combating Hate Crimes in the OSCE Region: An Overview of Statistics, Legislation, and National Initiatives (Warsaw: OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), 2005, pp.105–58.

75. Interviews with Germany policymakers and civil society actors 2003–2007. Many interviewees have argued that there is no need to do this in Germany because over the course of the 1990s the state included such acts in its list of ‘base motives’ subject to discretionary penalty enhancement. This is true, but it takes into account neither the symbolic effect of a law nor the fact that such motives were often already subject to increased penalties in other jurisdictions that nonetheless enacted dedicated hate crime laws. For an extended discussion, see S. Seehafer, Strafrechtliche Reaktionen auf rechtsextremistisch/fremdenfeindlich motivierte Gewalttaten – Das amerikanische ‘hate crime’ Konzept und seine Übertragbarkeit auf das deutsche Rechtssytem (Berlin: Dissertation, Juristische Fakultät, Humbolt-Universität, 2003).

76. Singer, ‘Erfassung der Politisch Motivierten Kriminalität’; BMI/BMJ, Zweiter Periodischer Sicherheitsbericht, p.135.

77. BMI/BMJ, Erster Periodischer Sicherheitsbericht, p.264; BMI/BMJ, Zweiter Periodischer Sicherheitsbericht, pp.135–8.

78. Bennett, ‘How States Utilize Foreign Evidence’, p.35.

79. Hamburger Abendblatt, 12 February 2001.

80. Thuringia was identified in the BKA's 2000 Autumn Meeting as having the most such crimes, per capita, of any federal state, to which it offered a robust response in the ensuing days and months. See Bundeskriminalamt, Rechtsextremismus, p.60; Holzberger, ‘Offenbarungseid der Polizeistatistiker’, p.30; Süddeutsche Zeitung, 23 November 2000; FAZ, 14 March 2001.

81. Bennett, ‘How States Utilize Foreign Evidence’, p.35.

82. Bundeskriminalamt, Rechtsextremismus.

83. Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Annual Report 2005 on the Protection of the Constitution (Berlin: Federal Ministry of the Interior, 2006), p.18.

84. BMI/BMJ, Zweiter Periodischer Sicherheitsbericht, pp.136–7.

85. Jacoby, Imitation and Politics, p.34.

86. D. Muniak, ‘Policies That “Don't Fit”: Words of Caution on Adopting Overseas Solutions to American Problems’, Policy Studies Journal 14/1 (1985), pp.1–19; Hall, ‘Conclusion’; Rose, Lesson-Drawing in Public Policy, p.31.

87. Bundeskriminalamt, Rechtsextremismus.

88. See Bundeskriminalamt, Kriminalprävention: Rechtsextremismus - Antisemitismus - Fremdenfeindlichkeit (Neuwied und Kriftel: Luchterhand, 2000).

89. Jacoby, Imitation and Politics, 15.

90. See also Seehafer, Strafrechtliche Reaktionen.

91. See Lees, ‘We Are All Comparativists Now’.

92. Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies, pp.60, 57–61.

93. Parsons, Public Policy, pp.106–25.

94. See S. Cohen, Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers (London: MacGibbon and Kee, 1972).

95. Parsons, Public Policy, Part 2.

96. Bundeskriminalamt, Rechtsextremismus; Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Annual Report 2005.

97. Kleffner and Holzberger ‘War da was?’; K. Wendel, Rechte Gewalt – Definitionen und Erfassungskriterien (Opferperspektive, 13 November 2005 [cited 8 April 2006]), available from http://www.opferperspektive.de/Hintergrund/17.html; see also the periodic follow-up murder counts by the Tagesspiegel that consistently exceed official numbers (Tagesspiegel, 5 October 2001, 6 March 2003, 27 September 2005).

98. R. Koopmans, P. Statham, M. Giugni and F. Passy, Contested Citizenship: Immigration and Cultural Diversity in Europe (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005); S. Green, ‘Divergent Traditions, Converging Responses: Immigration and Integration Policy in the UK and Germany’, German Politics 16/1 (2007), pp.95–115; O. Schmidtke, ‘From Taboo to Strategic Tool in Politics: Immigrants and Immigration Policies in German Party Politics’, in W. Reutter (ed.), Germany on the Road to ‘Normalcy’: Policies and Politics of the Red–Green Federal Government (1998–2002) (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), pp.161–81. In 2006, Germany passed its General Act on Equal Treatment (Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz), conforming to European Union requirements to protect against employment discrimination on grounds of gender, race or ethnic origin, religion or belief, age, disability, or sexual orientation.