Attacks on nonconformists and alternative lifestylers

'Nonconformists' and those who subscribe to an alternative lifestyle or subculture are often the victims of aggressive behaviour, attacks or discrimination which, while not generally recognised as a hate crime, has been likened to violence against those minorities who are more usually described as being the focus of discrimination. These attacks often target recognisable groups of people such as Goths, cosplayers or hippys but may also target non-conformists as well as those who dress or act differently due to upbringing or choice. Since certain subcultures, alternative lifestyles and non-conformists have a higher than average ratio of homosexuality to that of mainstream society attacks on these groups may overlap with more recognised forms of discrimination such as homophobia, ableism and mentalism.
Goths
* In 2007 Sophie Lancaster her boyfriend, Robert Maltby, were attacked by a group of teenage boys while walking through Stubbylee Park in Bacup, Rossendale in Lancashire. Sophie went into a coma due to massive head trauma caused by the youths repeatedly stamping on her head and later died in hospital. The police said the attack may have been provoked by the couple's wearing gothic fashion and being members of the goth subculture. After the attack witnesses revealed that: "The killers celebrated their attack on the goths — or "moshers" - by telling friends afterwards that they had, "done summat good," and claiming: "There's two moshers nearly dead up Bacup park;— you wanna see them;— they're a right mess." The injured couple were assisted by some of the teenagers who called emergency services, and then stayed with the couple and tried to tend their wounds. At the trial they were commended by the judge. The murder was described by judge Anthony Russell QC as "hate crime equal to all others" and by Det Supt Mick Gradwell as one of the most violent murders he had seen. Robert Maltby was left permanently disfigured and traumatised. Sylvia Lancaster, Sophie's mother remains "convinced Sophie was killed simply because of the way she looked" and founded the Sophie Lancaster Foundation in order to change English law to give additional protection to members of subcultures. Mrs Lancaster asserts that "Society overall now needs to realise it's just as unacceptable to hate someone because they look different,".
Punks
* On the twelfth of December, 1997, seventeen-year-old jock named Dustin Camp killed nineteen-year-old punk musician Brian Theodore Deneke (March 9, 1978 - December 12, 1997) in a deliberate hit and run attack in Amarillo, Texas. Much the like other punks in Amarillo, Deneke had suffered frequent harassment and bullying, and acquired nicknames such as "Punch" and "Fist Magnet" by tormentors. Camp's defence attorney used divisive tactics to emphasize Camp's normalcy to suggest his goodness while at the same time emphasizing the deviancy of punks to suggest that they had a malicious and unpredictable nature. This was seen as a strong indication of how casually accepted biases against nonconformists were in Amarillo by the punk community. Although Camp was initially charged with first-degree-murder, the jury only found Camp guilty of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced him to ten years probation and a $10,000 fine. Both Camp's attorney and the district attorney found this sentence to be unusually mild. Colvin believed that the jury gave Camp a second chance because of his youth. The death of Brian Deneke shook Amarillo and horrified the punk subculture. Punks in Amarillo reported that they had often been targets of abuse and harassment by jocks because of their differences, even before the incident; after the trial there was a general feeling that Camp walked free because he was seen as a "good kid" - unlike the punks. The mayor of Amarillo, Kel Seliger, attempted to distance the town from the verdict "It was not a community verdict," he said, "it was 12 people." Nonetheless, the murder trial had prompted the mayor to emphasize tolerance for differences and mutual respect. The Deneke killing was referred to briefly in an academic article arguing the case for expanding the definitions of bias crime beyond the usual boundaries of religious, sexual and racial groups, to other social groupings. More recently, parallels have been drawn between this case and the murder of Sophie Lancaster.

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