The Lifecycle of a Hate Crime Project

The Lifecycle of a Hate Crime project examined the application of hate crime legislation in the courtroom. During this two-year project, we interviewed legal professionals, victims and offenders to capture best practice and limitations in the tools used to combat hate crime.

About the project

Hate crime legislation is an important tool to address crime that is based on a person’s race, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or disability. In the UK, however, there has been some critique about the possible limitations to the application of hate crime legislation and the legislative frameworks not protecting all hate crime victims equally.

The Lifecycle of a Hate Crime project is a two-year EU-DG Justice funded project that examined the application of criminal laws and sentencing provisions for hate crime in the United Kingdom as part of a five-country project (also including the Czech Republic, Ireland, Latvia, Sweden).

It aimed to capture best practice and the limitations in the tools used to combat hate crime across Europe, as it relates to strategies of legal intervention and the implementation of these rules.

We explored the manner in which legislation operates in practice from the perspective of two primary target groups:

  • actors in the criminal justice system, which include prosecutors, defence lawyers and judges
  • victims and offenders of hate crime.

In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with key actors in the criminal justice system, allowing us to to gather information on the day-to-day operation of the criminal justice system in relation to hate crimes.

These interviews were essential to revealing disjunctures between stated policy and day-to-day practice, as well as consequences for the prosecution of hate crime.

We also analysed Crown Court Sentencing Survey data gathered from 1 October 2010 to 31 March 2015, and reviewed over 100 reported cases involving hate crime offences.

Project findings

The Lifecycle of a Hate Crime research findings suggest that the current law needs to be amended to make sure victims of hate crime of all characteristics – racial, religious, sexual orientation, disability and transgender identity - are protected equally under the legislation.

Ideally, however, a new Hate Crime Act should be introduced that would aggravate any criminal offence that demonstrates hostility towards, or is committed by reason of, the victim’s (presumed) race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or transgender identity. As such the key recommendation of the report is that a new Hate Crime Act is enacted. Failing the enactment of a new Hate Crime Act, three other recommendations are put forward:

  1. as a minimum, Parliament amend s. 28 of the Crime and Disorder Act to include sexual orientation, disability and transgender identity;
  2. the offences of affray, violent disorder, theft and handling stolen goods, robbery, burglary, fraud and forgery, s. 18 grievous bodily harm, homicide offences and all sexual offences are added to the Crime and Disorder Act;
  3. s. 28 of the Crime and Disorder Act is amended to remove the word “motivation” and to replace this with a new “by reason” test;

The study also makes recommendations for the police, prosecutors and the judiciary for improving their practice. The study found particular problems in relation to:

  • the consistent application of sentencing provisions under ss. 145 & 146 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003
  • a reluctance in parts of the judiciary to accept “demonstrations of hostility” committed in the “heat of the moment” as falling within the scope of the legislation
  • the potential for “double convictions” in the Magistrates’ Courts
  • diverging approaches to calculating “uplifts” for enhanced sentencing
  • the potential for “double counting” of hostility at sentencing, due to the fragmented nature of the legislation
  • and a systemic failure to identity and “flag” disability hate crimes, as well as a reluctance amongst many judges and legal practitioners to accept evidence of targeted violence against disabled people as proof of “disability hostility”.

The authors therefore recommend that:

  • the Government legislates to create a new Hate Crime Act that consolidates the existing fragmented framework which would prescribe any offence as “aggravated” in law where there is evidence of racial, religious, sexual orientation, disability and/or transgender identity hostility
  • the judiciary makes greater use of community and rehabilitation programmes that are designed to tackle the root causes of prejudice and hate as part of offenders’ “uplift”
  • and for the many thousands of cases that never reach court, that the police and CPS should make greater efforts to offer restorative solutions to ensure that more is being done to address the individual, community and societal harms that are caused by hate crime.

Publications

Read our outputs from the project.

The Lifecycle of a Hate Crime Project Reports

Understanding Hate Crime: Causes, Impacts and Prevention

Contact

Get in touch with the researchers: