Editing Hate mail

{{Short description|Threatening comments sent to a person}}
{{about||the Canadian short comedy-drama film|Hate Mail (film)}}[[File:DearBossletterJacktheRipper.jpg|180px|thumb|The first page of the [[Dear Boss letter|"Dear Boss" letter]], dated 25 September 1888]]
'''Hate mail''' (as [[e-mail|electronic]], [[mail|posted]], or otherwise) is a form of [[harassment]], usually consisting of invective and potentially [[intimidating]] or threatening comments towards the recipient.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Journal of Forensic Sciences |doi=10.1520/JFS13019J |url=https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/forensicsciences/article-pdf/36/1/185/7121679/10_1520_jfs13019j.pdf |title=Threatening and Otherwise Inappropriate Letters to Hollywood Celebrities |date=1991 |last1=Dietz |first1=PE |last2=Matthews |first2=DB |last3=Van Duyne |first3=C. |last4=Martell |first4=DA |last5=Parry |first5=CDH |last6=Stewart |first6=T. |last7=Warren |first7=J. |last8=Crowder |first8=JD |volume=36 |pages=185–209 }}</ref> Hate mail often contains exceptionally abusive, foul or otherwise hurtful language.

The recipient may receive disparaging remarks concerning their [[ethnicity]], [[gender]], [[religion]], [[intelligence]], [[Ideologies of parties|political ideology]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Temkin |first1=Benny |last2=Yanay |first2=Niza |title='I Shoot Them with Words': An Analysis of Political Hate-Letters |journal=British Journal of Political Science |date=October 1988 |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=467–483 |doi=10.1017/S0007123400005226 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-political-science/article/i-shoot-them-with-words-an-analysis-of-political-hateletters/F86AFF397A549A112DE08993207D540B |language=en |issn=1469-2112|url-access=subscription }}</ref> sense of [[ethics]], or sense of [[aesthetics]]. The text of hate mail often contains [[profanity]], or it may simply contain a negative message. 

Senders of hate mail normally send anonymous letters or pose as someone else (either a different or fictitious individual) in order to avoid being identified and tracked down, as the nature of some hate mail would inevitably result in criminal charges if the sender was identified.

==Notable examples of hate mail==
[[File:Zodiac Killer letter, San Francisco Chronicle, July 31st 1969.pdf|thumb|[[Zodiac killer]]'s letter sent to the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' on July 31, 1969]]
Hate mail has frequently been issued to footballers and managers by fans of rival football teams, and also by their own fans who are dissatisfied with the performance of an individual player, manager or the team. [[Neil Lennon]], the former [[Celtic F.C.]] manager, received hate mail including a package containing a [[nail bomb]] from [[Rangers F.C.|Rangers]] fans. Two men were jailed for five years in April 2012 for sending a nail bomb to Lennon.<ref>{{cite web |last1=McGivern |first1=Mark |title=Rangers fan who sent letter bomb to Neil Lennon is pictured back at Ibrox |url=https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/fury-hate-filled-rangers-fan-who-5317067 |website=Daily Record |access-date=26 October 2020 |language=en |date=12 March 2015}}</ref>

The parents of 10-year-old Holly Wells, a [[Cambridgeshire]] girl who was murdered along with her friend Jessica Chapman in the highly-publicised [[Soham murders]] in August 2002, received several letters shortly after their daughter's body was found, accusing them both of being involved in the murder of the two girls. They also received several letters with content including that they "got what they deserved" for allowing their daughter to play out on the Sabbath. Other letters with sexual content referring to the possible circumstances of her death were also written.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sapsted |first1=David |title=Parents got hate mail after Soham murders |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1485176/Parents-got-hate-mail-after-Soham-murders.html |website=The Telegraph |date=8 March 2005 |access-date=26 October 2020}}</ref>

The parents of [[Murder of Sarah Payne|Sarah Payne]], who was murdered in [[West Sussex]] in July 2000, received an anonymous letter while she was still missing, accusing her father and grandfather of having murdered her. After Sarah's body was found, her parents also received letters berating them for allowing Sarah and her three siblings to play unsupervised on a beach.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/quot-as-a-mum-i-was-meant-to-protect-my-children-and-to-know-what-to-do-if-things-went-wrong-i-had-failed-on-both-counts-quot-1-2545246 |title="As a mum, I was meant to protect my children and to know what to do if things went wrong. I had failed on both counts." |access-date=January 7, 2019 |archive-date=April 13, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190413220914/https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/quot-as-a-mum-i-was-meant-to-protect-my-children-and-to-know-what-to-do-if-things-went-wrong-i-had-failed-on-both-counts-quot-1-2545246 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> Her mother, [[Sara Payne]], now a child protection campaigner, closed her [[Twitter]] social networking account in November 2014 following a long campaign of abuse by [[Internet troll|trolls]], which included allegations that she had made a vast amount of money from her media work and was "glorying in a lavish lifestyle" as a result, suggestions that [[Roy Whiting]] (convicted of Sarah's murder) was innocent, threatening messages from Twitter users claiming to be paedophiles, and remarks about the death of her former husband Michael from an [[alcoholism]] related illness the previous month.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Boyle |first1=Danny |title=Sara Payne quits Twitter after 'years of abuse' |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11237342/Sara-Payne-quits-Twitter-after-years-of-abuse.html |website=The Telegraph |date=18 November 2014 |access-date=26 October 2020}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Death threat]]
*[[Flaming (Internet)|Flaming]]
*[[Hate crime]]
*[[Hate speech]]
*[[Obscene phone call]]
*[[Poison pen letter]]
*[[Fan mail]]

==References==
<references />

==External links==
{{no footnotes|date=April 2016}}
*[http://www.thetext.co.uk] The Forensic Linguistics Institute

===Scholarly articles===
* {{cite journal | last = Dear | first = Michael | title = The politics of geography: hate mail, rabid referees, and culture wars | journal = [[Political Geography (journal)|Political Geography]] | volume = 20 | issue = 1 | pages = 1–12 | doi = 10.1016/S0962-6298(00)00033-0 | date = January 2001 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Temkin|first1=Benny|last2=Yanay|first2=Niza | title = 'I shoot them with words': an analysis of political hate-letters | journal = [[British Journal of Political Science]] | volume = 18 | issue = 4 | pages = 467–483 | doi = 10.1017/S0007123400005226 |jstor=193881 | date = October 1988 |s2cid=154321350 }}

===News articles===
*[https://www.theguardian.com/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1126294,00.html "Jewish activists opposing the Israeli government's policies face intimidation and harassment via email and on the internet."] ''[[Guardian Unlimited]]'', 19 January 2004
*[http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1055606/ "Racist Hate Mail Found In Durham Mailboxes"] [[WRAL-TV]], 10 October 2006

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[[Category:Letters (message)]]
[[Category:Hate crime]]
[[Category:Abuse]]