My name is Piotr Godzisz.

I am an Associate Professor in Criminology at the University of Leicester and a Co-Director of the Centre for Hate Studies.

 As Principal Investigator, I led two major EU-funded transnational projects on anti-LGBT hate crime: Come Forward, which examined barriers to justice and victim support across Europe, and Call It Hate, which generated one of the largest comparative datasets on public attitudes towards hate crime, based on representative surveys in ten countries. Both produced substantial comparative research alongside practical resources, with findings subsequently developed through academic publications and policy work.

I implemented a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship at Université libre de Bruxelles. You can read about the project ENTER, exploring responses to hate crime in Southeast and East European countries here. 

My book State Responses to Anti-LGBT Violence: Poland in a European Context presents the first comprehensive examination of the European anti-hate project. It explores the complexities of establishing legal protections for victims of hate speech and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity – two of the most contested and politicised personal statuses.

Does your country recognise sexual orientation hate crime law? Check out the map!