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Richie Montague
and violence. Stakeholders working on other interface areas of Belfast
also account for the damaging impact hate crime has for both victims
and the wider community. John argues that “interface violence makes
life a misery for people on both sides of the interface…they live in fear,
they live in a completely disorientated nervous state most of their lives.”
Thus John views sectarian interface violence as a pernicious form of
hate crime which has damaging emotional and psychological impact for
victims. In this way, it is much more than simply recreational rioting.
Conclusion
There is a significant downplaying of sectarian interface violence in Belfast, particularly when it is conceived of as recreational rioting. Due to
the varying conceptions of interface violence, there is a need to properly
identify and distinguish that interface violence is an expression of deleterious sectarian animosity. One implication of defining violent sectarianism as anti-social behaviour is: when stakeholders adopt this view, they
are arguably failing to address sectarian hatred among young people by
not exploring fully the nature of sectarian conflict at interfaces. Nevertheless, other stakeholders argue that sectarian interface violence is very
much underpinned by rivalries and hostilities between divided communities and therefore do treat interface violence as hate crime. This article
has argued that sectarian interface violence is a form of hate crime. This
point is underscored by two key factors: first, interface violence requires
definitions which match the harm and damage it creates for people living
within such areas. Sectarian violence at interfaces is therefore criminal
behaviour, largely motivated by intergroup enmity; which in turn creates
physical damage to property and heightens anxiety and uncertainty within communities. Secondly, interface violence undermines wider norms
of a peace process and a shared future in its potential to exacerbate intergroup conflict. Not treating it as hate crime arguably renders the point
and purpose of the 2004 hate crime legislation a meaningless by-product
of failed attempts to address sectarian hatred in Northern Ireland.