Anomalies in the application of law related to hate crimes

Abstract

The number of hate crime cases in certain countries that was brought to the authorities' attention and was included in the official statistics of countries and relevant international organizations could be negligibly low. However, alternative databases do not provide such a serene landscape as these data sets aim to provide a more credible picture of the real volume of hate crimes. The results of the victim surveys conducted amongst members of the potential victim groups can be even more shocking. Now it is obvious that only a small number of these crime cases is officially reported and behind the high latency, numerous personal and institutional causes can be identified, most notably in relation to victims and law enforcement authorities. The main objective of this literature review is to present these reasons and barriers that authorities are facing, difficulties of enforcement in individual cases and the significant structural problems in the application of law.