‘I’d use my exfoliator quite a lot and really scrub my skin to the point I started to get bruises . . . just to make sure that I did not get any darker’: Managing hate crime victimisation

The research explored the complex landscape of coping mechanisms employed by Muslim, Jewish, and Hindu individuals facing hate crimes in the United Kingdom. Using semi-structured qualitative interviews with victims of religious hate crime, the purpose of this article is to examine the coping strategies used by victims in response to victimisation. This study identifies four key coping mechanisms: withdrawal/avoidance, sense of safety among community members, negotiation of identity, and normalisation. Muslim participants frequently engaged in withdrawal or avoidance, seeking comfort within their community, or used humour and rationalisation to downplay the impact of their experiences. Jewish participants predominantly normalised the aggression, often viewing it as an inevitable aspect of their minority status, with some attributing it to generational trauma and historical experiences. Hindu participants also employed normalisation, attributing hate crimes to the perpetrators’ background and ignorance, thereby distancing themselves from the personal impact of the incidents. Understanding how individuals cope with hate crimes reveals the diverse strategies employed across different cultural and religious groups.