This refreshed schools pack
The Crown Prosecution Service has issued a new “schools pack” on ” LGBT+ Bullying and Hate Crime.”
Before we even get to the content, I have to say I don’t understand what prosecutors are doing issuing such things in the first place. Prosecutors prosecute, they don’t teach or preach or create content for schools (or hospitals or factories or any other institution). I don’t get it. Do UK schools have whole rows of “packs” that tell children what they can’t do if they want to stay out of the slammer?
So now for the content of this bizarre CPS news item:
“Hate incidents and hate crimes can have a devastating effect on the individuals and communities who are targeted for simply being who they are. Everybody has the right to live free of persecution, but hate crime tramples upon this right.”
So said Chris Long, Chief Crown Prosecutor and CPS national lead on hate crime at the launch of a new LGBT+ Bullying and Hate Crime Schools Project pack.
He’s not wrong, but I don’t see why or how he has jurisdiction over schools. I’m not familiar with a world where prosecutors or cops provide schools with content of this kind. Schools for sure should have policies against bullying, and the staff at schools should know how to watch for it and how to prevent it and stop it. But that should be the schools’ job, not that of law enforcement.
The pack aims to protect potential victims by deterring would-be abusers and encouraging and supporting victims of identity based bullying to report incidents.
Why not just bullying tout court? It’s no more fun to be bullied for being too small or fat or nerdy or shy than it is to be bullied for “identity.”
Plus they’re not even complete about the “identity,” but they don’t admit that until later.
It has been developed by the CPS in partnership with a number of organisations, including Stonewall, the National Police Chiefs’ Council, Gendered Intelligence and NASUWT.
Of course it fucking has. So it will be terrible then. Stonewall and Gendered Intelligence are shit on this subject.
In the 2018 National LGBT Survey, almost half (40%) of respondents said they had experienced things such as verbal harassment or physical violence for being LGBT+.
Nobody is “LGBT+”. That’s a grab-bag of items and no one can be all of them. If the thinking is that woolly before they even get to the content, the whole thing is going to be hopeless.
Chris Long, Chief Crown Prosecutor and CPS national lead on hate crime, said: “We know lots of hate crime isn’t reported. We hope this refreshed schools pack can help to educate young people and support victims in reporting homophobic and transphobic abuse.
“Education and working with young people is key to tackling hate crime generally. This is not about prosecution of youths, but about prevention and educating future generations on homophobic and transphobic hate crime and supporting victims in reporting hate crime.”
But, again, how is that the business of prosecutors? If it’s not about prosecution, why is the Prosecution Service meddling in it?
Now we get to the incomplete part.
A hate crime is:
“Any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice, based on a person’s disability or perceived disability; race or perceived race; or religion or perceived religion; or sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation or transgender identity or perceived transgender identity.”
See what’s missing? Of course, because it always is. Sex. Sex or perceived sex. I guess there’s no such thing as hostility or prejudice based on a person’s sex any more. Misogyny? Sexism? What’s them? Never heard of them.
The CPS takes hate crime very seriously, and is determined to hold those responsible to account. Last year, the CPS secured convictions in 84% of the hate crime cases it prosecuted and, due to the severity of hate crime, the courts increased the sentences handed down in 74% of these convictions. This sends a clear message that hate crime is a scourge on Britain and will not be tolerated.
The new pack contains an updated glossary of terms and an additional scenario and exercises to help students understand the impact of homophobia and transphobia and be aware of how to report hate crime and identity-based bullying.
Teachers and schools can download the pack from this website. This is a resource for schools, so a password is required to download the pack. This can be requested by emailing LGBTHatecrimeschoolspack@cps.gov.uk.
A password is required to see what’s in this thrilling new “pack” brought to you by criminal prosecutors.
Mind how you go.
If they included sex or perceived sex in the list of protected classes, they might have to prosecute trans “folx”, and that wouldn’t do.
I will again point out another thing missing from this definition of hate crime: the actual intent or motivation of the alleged perpetrator. Whether a putative hate crime is in fact a hate crime rather than a mere, ordinary, run-of-the-mill crime is beyond contest. The mere perception by the alleged victim—or anyone else—of a particular sort of mens rea on the part of the alleged perpetrator makes guarantees that it be a hate crime. All the courts can do is rule on guilt.
And of course civil disagreement with genderist claims may be “perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice” and thus transphobic hate crime.
To parse it closely, it has to otherwise be a criminal offense. So transphobically waving hello wouldn’t be a hate crime, but transphobically stealing someone’s license plate tags would be.
#4
You reminded me of the best thing to come out of New Zealand:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9Qu3iP3RYA
I don’t understand why the CPS is involved, either. The main function of the CPS is to provide guidelines to law enforcement on prosecution in general and yes/no advice on individual cases. I’m all for preventative measures, but as far as I can tell, that’s just not part of the CPS’ remit.
But I’m not a lawyer, so I asked my wife, who is. She is equally confused. The CPS doesn’t have an education or crime prevention role she’s aware of and we agreed that the CPS should stick to advising law enforcement on when to prosecute rather than telling children how to behave.
I’m familiar with how projects of this sort are usually put together. One party – usually but not always a university – sees a call for funding and builds a consortium to bid for it. I can understand why such a consortium might include the CPS to add credibility. Presumably it has access to all sorts of crime statistics and so on. I’d argue that providing that kind of data to a project would be an excellent role for the CPS. But in that case, the CPS would usually be a minor partner. The press release in this case suggests that this is a CPS initiative involving the various other partners. Odd.
And that login to download the school pack is odd too. That doesn’t look like a normal citizen gov.uk login (as one might use when applying for a passport or driving license). It’s asking for authentication to the CPS website, which is definitely not standard gov.uk practice.