Hidden targets, hidden harms: Community safety and sexual minority communities

This paper focuses on the social and political climate in which the emphasis on concepts such as community safety, community cohesion and social exclusion is currently being expanded, in order to accommodate to the recent developments in England and Wales in which hate crimes, whether racially motivated or a result of homophobia, are increasingly being taken seriously by local authorities and police forces in England and Wales. It is within this context that social detachment, non-participation in 'civic culture', and a lack of confidence in government and in the police are seen as being social problems that must be resolved through confidence-building, consultation and encouraging participation, especially in relation to minority communities. The main focus of the paper is devoted to exploring the special place of hate crime in the expanding conceptual landscape of the 'community safety' ethos following the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, with particular attention being paid to homophobic and transphobic incidents.