This study is in two parts and contains six chapters. Part I is mainly analytical with
an emphasis on descriptive explication, while Part Two is expressly critical. There
is a deliberate step-by-step progression from descriptive elements of surface phenomena
addressed in Part One to more critical analysis of depth and constitutive
elements of hate crime as lived experientially, which we discuss in Part Two. Our
approach is phenomenological in a distinctly Husserlian sense, as opposed to a
would-be summation of post-Husserlian developments within a posited “phenomenological
movement” whose borders remain both fuzzy and contentious.
We have attempted to follow Husserl’s methodological as well as more substantive
positions derived mainly from primary sources. Yet, we have avoided taking
positions within internal Husserlian debates founded within the secondary literature
or defending either Husserl or our own broadly Husserlian approach from familiar
criticisms. Although this might attract criticism from those active in the secondary
literature debates, our decision here remains in line with the Husserlian imperative
to focus on “the things themselves,” which in our case comprise:
1. Experiential aspects of a hate crime incident as lived, the correlation of its what
qualities and underlying howness
2. The demands the latter makes upon an expressly formulated Husserlian analysis
of this phenomenon that seeks to adapt itself to these demands even to the point
of revising aspects of a Husserlian approach