Book excerpt: With contributions by internationally recognized specialists, this book, a perfect complement to courses in criminology and hate crime, provides a key resource for understanding how racism and homophobia work to produce violence. Hate-motivated violence is now deemed a ‘serious national problem’ in most Western societies. With contributions by British, Australian, American, Canadian, Irish, Italian and French researchers, this book addresses a wide spectrum of types of violence, including, genocide, urban riots, inter-ethnic fighting and forms of hate crime targeting gay and lesbian people. Contributors to this volume also consider the political groups responsible for outbursts of hatred, their modes of operation and the institutional aspects of hate crime. Opening up an interdisciplinary perspective on the ways in which certain groups or individuals are transformed into expiatory victims, this compelling book is an essential read for all postgraduate law students and researchers interested in hate crime and society.