ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the challenges for VicPol in implementing hate crime policy in an environment where community policing has a vexed relationship with minority communities. This analysis reveals the limits of over- and under-inclusive approaches to policing hate crime. The chapter provides detail on the socio-legal analysis of the case law on prejudice motivated crime. When police focus on communities as an amalgam of criminogenic factors, they are perceived as operating in a fashion that challenges human rights and procedural justice measures. Communities that feel under siege will naturally see the spectre of discrimination when one of their members is victimised. The chapter examines a series of flexible markers for the identification of hate crime that aim to recognise both community expectations and operational needs of VicPol. They are, suspect/victim difference; suspect statements; the circumstances of the offence; the absence of other motives; and the suspect's history of group victimisation.
