Extreme violence garners most attention, but the problems arise much earlier – both online and in the real world.
What is the relationship between online and offline extremism? What types of data should be examined in order to understand this relationship? What is the full scope of violent extremist actions? These are all key questions that extremism researchers are trying to answer.
Part of the answer may lie in looking at extremist behaviours that are not limited to the most extreme end of radicalisation – that is, the engagement in, and support for, terrorism. Instead, we can gain insight by examining other violent behaviour, including acts of aggression, violence against properties and instigation of violence. Such behaviours are usually referred to as hate crimes and hate incidents. They occur online and offline, and should be factored into our concept of violent extremism in order to have a fuller, more accurate understanding of what extremism is and how it manifests itself.
But first we need a uniform and coherent definition of what a hate crime is, and a standardised manner in which data is collected. That is the purpose of the Australia-based Tackling Hate Project. It includes research and training on hate incidents, hate crimes and violent extremism, data collection of online and offline hate incidents, and developing best practices for removing the barriers to reporting hate crimes in communities.
Hate crimes are broadly defined as any criminal acts committed with a bias or ideological motivation. Hate incidents are malicious acts that do not meet the threshold for a crime. They can include displays of aggression, graffiti, instigation of violence via a social media post or threatening posts or leaflets that might not meet the threshold of a crime under some legislations.
Read the article by Matteo Vergani in The Interpreter.