Résumé
To date, there has been little systematic research in Canada into the nature of, and state responses to, hate motivated crimes. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effectiveness of one such response by exploring and describing the perceptions of victims who have received service from the Ottawa-Carleton Police Bias Crime Unit. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 29 victims of hate motivated crimes and a phenomenological approach was used to analyze the interview results. Results indicated that the respondents found the Bias Crime Unit to be an effective response to their hate crime victimization and that the potential of this Unit is confined by internal and systemic forces. This study adds to the understanding of hate motivated crime victimization and the findings have implications for the Ottawa-Carleton Police and the larger criminal justice system.