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Publications and Policies > No Hate Initiative
Many individuals become targets of hateful acts because others are unable to accept differences based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, ethnicity or disability. Miami University condemns such acts. At Miami, a hateful incident directed at an individual or group, owing to their difference, is viewed as an attack on the entire community.
This summary is designed to explain how the Miami community comes to the aid of those who are targets of hate and to provide a basic guide to university resources. Included is information about how a hate crime is distinguished from hate speech and what to do about either.
Topics covered on this page:
What can I do if I believe I’m the victim of a hate crime or any incident based on my race, religion, ethnicity, gender, age, disability or sexual orientation that makes me afraid for my safety?
- Report incidents immediately to Miami Police by calling 2222 (or 911 in an emergency).
- Preserve any evidence (graffiti, phone call recording, e-mail message, letter, etc.).
- Miami encourages the reporting of all such situations, preferably to the police. But tell someone, preferably someone who can help you find the available university resources
What will Miami University do in such cases?
Miami will make changes in the victim’s living conditions if a victim wishes. In addition, Miami Police promise to:
- Meet with you promptly
- Treat you and your concern with respect and sensitivity.
- Take every case seriously.
- Discuss your options.
- Gather and preserve evidence
- Investigate all cases where a crime has occurred and arrest all perpetrators where sufficient legal grounds exist
Many hate crimes are anonymous and acquiring enough evidence to make an arrest is challenging. Other bias incidents (slurs, etc) are hurtful, but may be protected under First Amendment rights. That doesn’t mean you should ignore such incidents. If you are unsure what to do, contact Miami University Police.
What is the most frequently reported form of bias-motivated incidents on college campuses?
While physical attacks and vandalism are rare on college campuses across the nation, demeaning jokes or harassing or threatening phone calls or e-mails are not uncommon.
Each year, students, faculty and staff report incidents of telephone or electronic harassment to the Miami University Police. For the most part, the callers select female victims for their targets, using sexually explicit and sometimes violent language in their messages. Members of our gay and lesbian community are also targets of threatening and offensive telecommunications harassment. In many cases, investigators have been successful in identifying and prosecuting these offenders.
What options exist for victims of bias incidents ?
Miami’s goal is to make sure victims (and others in targeted groups) are aware of the wide range of support available.
- Office of Equity and Equal Opportunity Complaint
Bias incidents that do not violate criminal law may violate Miami’s policy prohibiting harassment and discrimination, Miami’s code of conduct for students, or federal or state civil law. Any student, faculty or staff member who believes he or she is the victim of a harassment or discrimination based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability or ethnicity may report the behavior directly to the Office of Equity and Equal Opportunity. A 20-page brochure, "Policy Prohibiting Harassment and Discrimination," provides detailed information about how such complaints will be handled. Call 529-7157 for more information.
Individuals who violate Miami’s policy prohibiting harassment or discrimination may be referred for appropriate disciplinary action up to and including dismissal.
- Residence hall action
Residence hall staff members are trained to take threats or expressions of hostility seriously and to provide peer support for victims. Victims are counseled and urged to call Miami Police if they have not already done so. Corridor meetings are often convened to discuss a bias-motivated incident and to urge a hall to stand as a community against the attack. Guests at such corridor meetings often include community police and/or counseling staff. Hall residents may also receive letters from staff outlining the incident and discussing its implications for both victims and the perpetrators. Staff members work with Miami Police and Judicial Affairs to identify perpetrators. A student who has received a direct threat may choose to move to a "safe room."
- Student Counseling Service
Victims of hate crimes and/or bias incidents often need assistance to work through the complex emotional and psychological consequences of hate crimes. Victims of such acts are not limited to the individuals who’ve personally undergone them. Others in the targeted group may experience the hate crime or bias incident as a personal attack in a very real way, too. All victims of such acts are encouraged to contact the Student Counseling Service at 529-4634. Staff members are aware of and sensitive to the impact of hate crimes and/or bias incidents. They offer caring support, help in working through difficult issues and will make referrals as needed.
- Community support
Miami has a Community Advocacy Alliance, which consists of students, faculty and staff trained to provide support for those who are marginalized. Alliance members post light blue signs with the "Community Advocacy Alliance." People with these signs will welcome into their office, as well as help in any way they can, individuals who have been the target of intolerance and bigotry. For more information, contact Juanita Tate at 529-5656.
What can I do to make a difference?
Action steps:
- Speak out when jokes or comments are made that are hateful or demean others because of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disability.
- Ask yourself if you use derogatory, degrading or offensive terms in describing others and if you avoid people who are different than you.
- Educate yourself on the psychology of hate. For example, statistics indicate that most hate callers are white males under the age of 22 with low self esteem who feel disenfranchised.
- Wear or display the anti-hate logo. Go to www.muohio.edu/nohate/ for a downloadable copy of the anti-hate crime logo developed here at Miami. Additional anti-hate resources are available at that site.
Remember that hate crimes have many victims. One act can make whole groups feel intimidated, frightened and isolated.
What is the definition of a "hate crime" versus a "bias-motivated incident"?
That’s actually a complex question.
Miami Police provide crime data to two national reports that list crime statistics, including hate crime statistics. For a crime to be classified as a "hate crime" it must meet criteria outlined in the definitions, which vary depending upon the federal agency collecting the information.
The definition most widely used by law enforcement agencies is from a U.S. Department of Justice publication Hate Crimes Data Collection Guidelines. These guidelines define a hate/bias crime as: "Any criminal offense committed against a person or property which is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic/national origin groups or sexual- orientation group."
Remember that even though an incident doesn’t meet the above definition, it is still harmful to the standards of community that Miami strives to uphold.
The two national crime reports to which Miami provides information include:
The Uniform Crime Report: Hate Crime Statistics published by the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation lists statistics for colleges and universities, cities rural and suburban counties as well as state law enforcement agencies. Statistics from 10,730 agencies were included in the 1998 report.
Your Right to Know Campus Security Act Report is produced by colleges and universities under federal Campus Security Act requirements.
Both the FBI and Campus Security Act include the following categories of offenses to be reported for statistical purposes:
Murder and non-negligent manslaughter
Forcible rape
Robbery
Aggravated and Simple Assault
Burglary
Motor vehicle theft
Arson
The FBI also includes offenses of intimidation, larceny-theft, and vandalism of property. These offenses are not reported under the Campus Security Act. The Campus Security Act, includes additional sex offenses, both forcible and non-forcible. In 1998, Miami became one of the first universities in the country to include sex offenses as hate crimes based on reporting requirements of the Campus Security Act. Using these guidelines, Miami had 15 hate crimes in 1998. Fourteen of these involved sexual assaults, which ranged from forcible fondling to rape. One of the 15 offenses involved race. It occurred off campus and two men were arrested and sent to prison in that incident. Neither had any connection to Miami.
Though there is no specific statute that is titled "Hate Crime" under Ohio law, there is a penalty-enhancement statute, Ethnic Intimidation §2927.12. This law addresses certain crimes, (aggravated menacing, menacing, criminal damaging or mischief, and telecommunications harassment) where the victim is targeted because of race, color, religion, or national origin. (See chart below)
Statistical publications like the FBI’s Hate Crime Statistics and Department of Education Your Right to Know Campus Security Act Report are designed to be factual presentations of data. Their purpose is not to evoke emotion or sway opinion. The neat columns and rows of numbers cannot possibly convey the suffering experienced by victims of crime. Nor can statistics depict the turmoil that a hateful act can bring to a community.
Still, Miami believes it is important to make it easy for students, faculty and staff to have access to such information and thus it posts its Your Right to Know Campus Security Act Report on the Web. For more information go to www.muohio.edu/campuscrime. Miami also exceeds Campus Security Act reporting requirements by including in its totals crimes that occur throughout the City of Oxford in order to better provide information about community safety. Subtotals are provided for on-campus crimes, both in residence halls and other campus buildings and those crimes occurring at off-campus locations, owned or controlled by student organizations.
Even if the incident does not rise to a violation of the law, cases of harassment, verbal slurs, etc., can lead to more serious hate motivated violence when the community fails to responds. Silence is acceptance. These behaviors tear at the fabric of the community.
The following chart provides more detailed information on what offenses are included in community and university hate crime statistics.
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UCR — Hate Crime
Statistics
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Dept of Education: Campus Crime Awareness and Statistics
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Ohio’s Ethnic Intimidation Statute |
Types of Offenses Reported |
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Murder
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Yes
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Yes
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No
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Forcible Rape
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Yes
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Yes
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No
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Other Forcible and
non-forcible sex offenses
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No
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Yes
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No
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Robbery
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Yes
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Yes
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No
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Aggravated or Simple Assault
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Yes
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Yes
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No
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Burglary
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Yes
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Yes
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No
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Motor Vehicle Theft
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Yes
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Yes
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No
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Arson
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Yes
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Yes
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No
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Larceny-Theft
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Yes
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No
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No
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Vandalism
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Yes
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No
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Yes
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Menacing
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Yes
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No
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Yes
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Telecommunications Harassment
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Yes
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No
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Yes
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Bias categories |
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Race
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Yes
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Yes
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Yes
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Religion
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Yes
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Yes
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Yes
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Ethnic/national origin
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Yes
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Yes
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Yes
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Sexual-orientation
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Yes
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Yes
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No
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Disability
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Yes
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Yes
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No
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Gender
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No
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Yes
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No
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How is the university community informed when a hate crime occurs?
The Institutional Response Team (IRT) has developed a set of guidelines for informing the community of a variety of crimes that pose a threat to personal safety—including assaults, burglaries, rapes, etc. Crimes involving an unidentified suspect who is at large and who poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community trigger the issuance of a campus crime alert.
When the IRT determines that a crime meets these criteria, Miami Police will issue a Campus Crime Alert, which is then widely circulated through the community.
If the crime and/or bias incident does not pose an ongoing safety threat to the community at large or to a particular group of individuals and/or involve a suspect at large, a Campus Information Bulletin may still be issued.
The IRT includes the dean of students, police chief, general counsel, senior director of university communications and other staff and faculty members.
How does one distinguish a hate crime or bias incident from hate speech?
Again that’s a complex question and an important one.
Every college hate speech code reviewed in the federal courts has been struck down, according to the Sept. 18, 2000 issue of Synfax, a weekly newsletter on issues of law and policy in higher education. "Important distinctions between "hate crimes" and "hate speech" have to be made—and reiterated—lest educators start repeating mistakes made in the past," say the editors of that publication.
Briefly, hateful expression does not necessarily constitute an unlawful "threat." Many court opinions have defined the word "threat" and they typically distinguish between provocative or boorish expression (typically protected by the First Amendment) and true threats, which may lawfully be punished. Additionally, courts have held that the perception of a threat must be "objective" (that is from the standpoint of a "reasonable person"), not the subjective impression of a complainant.
Most cases involving hateful language on campuses do not involve physical threats, but rather demeaning, hateful expression.
For example, in a 1993 case, a circuit court ruled that George Mason University’s decision to sanction a fraternity for sponsoring a racist and sexist "ugly woman contest" violated the First Amendment. The university clearly had an interest in maintaining an environment free of discrimination and racism, but the court said the university went too far in punishing expression because it is merely hateful.
Does that mean universities have no recourse in such a situation? Absolutely not. There are a variety of alternatives in such situations (see previous question titled: "What other options exist for victims of bias incidents and/or hate crimes?")
The following offices are available for more information or consultation:
Miami Web sites:
- No Hate Web Site: http;//www.muohio.edu/nohate/
- Diversity Fact Sheet: http://www.muohio.edu/diversityfacts/
- Campus Crime statistics: http://www.muohio.edu/campuscrime/
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