Responding to hate incidents on university campuses: benefits and barriers to establishing a restorative justice programme

ABSTRACT

This study examines staff and student perspectives of the use of restorative justice approaches to respond to student-on-student hate crime, hate incidents, and hate speech on university campuses. It draws on qualitative data collated over a one-year period, during the design and establishment of a restorative programme entitled ‘Restore Respect’ at two UK universities. Highlighting examples of students’ experiences of prejudice and hate across the two universities, we outline some of the key barriers to reporting associated with conventional university responses, as well as staff and student views of establishing a new restorative approach to addressing incidents. While early-stage evaluation revealed certain cultural and institutional barriers and limitations to the establishment and operation of a restorative programme, the majority of staff and students viewed it as an effective way of addressing hate-based conduct that would provide greater opportunity for more positive interventions and outcomes. The paper concludes by arguing for a renewed effort to move beyond standard institutional responses to student experiences of hate and prejudice at university through the adoption of restorative, needs-centred approaches.

KEYWORDS:

• Hate crime
• prejudice
• restorative justice
• universities
• disciplinary

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all participants who took part in this project and the project manager Bonita Holland for establishing Restore Respect across the two universities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Restore Respect: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/studentlifecentre/issues/restore_respect.

2. Interview/LGBT student.

3. Focus group/BAME student.

4. Practitioner 2.

5. Interview/LGBT student.

6. Focus group/BAME student.

7. Focus group/BAME student.

8. Practitioner 3.

9. Practitioner 5.

10. Practitioner 8.

11. Practitioner 8.

12. Interview/LGBT BAME student.

13. Practitioner 2.

14. Practitioner 1.

15. Practitioner 4.

16. Practitioner 6.

17. Practitioner 5.

Additional information

Funding

The project was funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Notes on contributors

Liyana Kayali

Liyana Kayali is a Lecturer at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University (ANU). She was previously a Research Fellow at the School of Law, Politics and Sociology at the University of Sussex. Liyana researches in the areas of gender and conflict, Middle East studies, transitional justice, and popular resistance.

Mark A. Walters

Mark A. Walters is a Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology at Sussex Law School. Mark’s research interests are focused primarily on hate crime studies as well as criminal justice reform with a special emphasis on restorative justice practice and theory. His monograph Hate Crime and Restorative Justice: Exploring Causes, Repairing Harms was published by OUP in 2014. Mark currently advises on justice responses to hate crime to the Home Office, Law Commission, Metropolitan Police Service, and the London Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime. He has also presented research evidence on tackling hate crime in the House of Commons (UK), the European Parliament (Brussels), and the Oireachtas (Dublin). Most recently he has delivered lectures and training for the United Nations’ Asia and Far East Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders in Tokyo.