User:Brian the Editor/sandbox/Bias incident

A bias incident or hate incident is an act of hostility motivated by racism, religious intolerance, or other prejudice. A bias incident is different from a hate crime in that it does not necessarily involve criminal activity. Examples include graffiti, verbal abuse, and distribution of hate-group literature.

On school campuses

Organizations such as the U.S. Community Relations Service, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Anti-Defamation League recommend that school administrators denounce bias incidents on their campuses regardless of whether a crime is committed. Reasons for having such a policy include preventing minor incidents from escalating into violence and protecting the reputation of the school and its surrounding community. Supporters of such policies say that they help maintain an atmosphere of civility in which people feel free to express themselves without fear of retaliation. A 2014 article in The Daily Caller argues that bias response policies that do not clearly define their scope are a threat to free speech because they could punish the expression of legitimate opinions.

A response to a bias incident begins with the victim or a bystander reporting it to the school's administration. After receiving the report, a school official (often a campus police officer) may begin to collect evidence and offer physical and emotional support to the victim. The institution may issue a public statement in order to dispel rumors, calm tensions, and state that bias incidents are not tolerated. School leadership may hold an open meeting to discuss the incident. Diversity training events may be included during orientation programs in an effort to prevent bias incidents from happening in the future.

Law enforcement

Even if there is no crime to prosecute, some jurisdictions encourage their citizens to report bias incidents to the police. Police officers can provide assistance to the victims, and some police departments are required to keep records of reported bias incidents.

References

Category:Hatred Category:Prejudice and discrimination Category:School and classroom behaviour

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notes

Lots of school-specific policies on .edu sites, coverage in school newspapers.

An article should probably be based on overviews from organizations, laws, scholarly studies, etc rather than WP:SYNTH of individual schools or news reports.

• http://www.tolerance.org/supplement/identifying-and-responding-bias-incidents
  • "conduct, speech or expression motivated, in whole or in part, by bias or prejudice. "
  • no criminal activity
  • 10 ways to identify
  • 7 steps for schools to respond (safety, investigate, denounce act, support victims, etc)
• http://archive.adl.org/campus/guide/bias_incidents.html#.VA98SGMgsgk
  • "Hate crimes are criminal acts against a person or property in which the perpetrator chooses the victim because of the victim’s real or perceived race, religion, gender, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability . . . Bias incidents reflect a similar animus but may not reach the legally defined threshold of criminality."
  • can raise tensions and embarrassment throughout community
  • univ admins should clearly denounce incidents, maintain tone of civility on campus
• http://nwibiasincidents.org/home_what-is-a-BMI.html
  • "behavior which constitutes an expression of hostility against the person or property of another because of the victim’s race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin"
  • may or may not involve crime
  • calls them "bias-motivated incident"s

? Some sources imply that hate crimes are a special type of bias incident, while others state that they are two separate categories.

? Does this need its own article? Maybe just a paragraph elsewhere.

• http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/discrimination_w/discrimination_hate_crime_e/what_are_hate_incidents_and_hate_crime.htm
  • police & Crown Prosecution Service: something is a hate incident if the victim or anyone else think it was motivated by hostility or prejudice based on one of the following things: disability, race, religion, transgender identity, sexual orientation."
  • UK - police can help deal with hate incidents, but only charge/prosecute for crimes
  • police will record incidents related to 5 characteristics, or more
  • smaller incidents may escalate
  • calls them "hate incidents"
• http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED446659 - DOJ Community Relations Service, similar responses for both hate crimes and BMIs
  • "specific crimes which are identifiable as a hate crime, including murder, manslaughter, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, arson, forcible and non-forcible sex offenses, intimidation, destruction, damage or vandalism of property, and other crimes involving injury to any person or property in which the victim is intentionally selected because of the actual or perceived race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or disability of the victim. When they do not fall into one of the listed criminal categories, hate offenses are referred to as bias-motivated incidents."
  • "A hate incident is an action in which a person is made aware that her/his status is offensive to another, but does not rise to the level of a crime." (p 1)
  • "Reactive" (p 4-5)
  • "Impulsive" (pp 5-6)
  • "Premeditated" (pp 6-8)
  • Community Relations Service: mediation programs resulting in "cultural diversity training, for faculty and students, policy positions on hate crimes, development of multi-cultural student centers, student peer group disciplinary panels, college publication guidelines, law enforcement response policies, and victim assistance to hate crime victims" (pp 8-9)
  • prevention: discuss diversity in orientation programs, have strong policy to outline responses (pp 9-11)
  • reporting: should be easy. consider accepting confidential reports, (p 11) page 12 is missing
  • resolution: collect evidence. could have a designated officer (13)
  • victim assistance: physical and emotional support. on-campus (counselling, health svcs, academic advisors, diversity groups, etc), off-campus (law enforcement, religious groups, CRS, ADL, NAACP, etc) (13-14)
  • media relations: provide accurate info quickly to discourage rumors (18)
  • long-term impact: reputation of the university, harm the free exchange of ideas (fear of retaliation) (p 19)
• http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED459656 -
  • "acts of prejudice that are not accompanied by violence, the threat of violence, property damage, or other illegal conduct" (5)
  • Clery Act: report if violates campus policies, even if not illegal (p 5)
  • slurs could escalate into violence (6)
  • cause fear in targeted students --> harder to focus on academic work, anger (6)
  • train campus police, designate a civil rights officer (7)
  • be clear about what should be reported, to whom, and when (8)
  • disseminated info: accurate info, make clear that it's not tolerated (10)
• http://eric.ed.gov/?q=bias+incident&id=EJ825422 - types, frequencies, responses. classroom-level

focus the article on definitions, responses, things people reading school newspapers will want to know. don't need to rehash the whole history and psychology of prejudice