Niacro

NIACRO along with the NI Prison Service have received PEACE 111 funding to work together on a three-year project to tackle this particularly insidious form of crime. 

Hate crime legislation became law in Northern Ireland in September 2004. Since then, sentencing has to take into account the fact that an offence is aggravated by hostility based on religion, race, sexual orientation or disability. 

Being a victim of hate crime is a particularly painful experience. It also hurts communities, arousing suspicion and alienation. We need to understand where its roots are, and how communities can make it clear that they don’t accept it. 

PSNI statistics for 2010-2011 recorded 995 hate crimes with a motivation of hostility on the grounds of sectarianism, the biggest group. They were followed by race (531) and homophobia (137). It is widely accepted that hate crime is under-recorded.

Challenging

Challenge Hate Crime has the goal of reducing hate crime through intensive support for people who have committed this sort of offence. Working to achieve this goal includes:

• improving the level of debate and understanding around hate crime (especially when motivated by sectarianism),
• developing a definition of sectarian hate crime
• extending the debate beyond the criminal justice system,
• designing and piloting a workable, effective model of helping offenders – in custody and in the community -  tackle their offending,
• increasing the skills of those working with offenders,
• sharing the learning through seminars and publications.

The project will contribute to what NIACRO has been insisting on for many years, and is now becoming accepted – effective joint working among all the relevant organisations, both inside and outside the criminal justice system. 

Justice Minister David Ford formally launched the Challenge Hate Crime project in December 2010.  Funded under Peace III, it has two strands. The research strand which is well underway will allow us to develop a better understanding of the true nature of hate crime in Northern Ireland and how such cases are managed within and across the criminal justice system. The second is to develop and then deliver a programme to help offenders change their behaviour. The development stage is now underway and the first pilot programme will begin in autumn 2011. We aim to make this a model of good practice. 

The project has an advisory group drawn from across the criminal justice and community sectors, and further links have been forged with other voluntary and community groups who will support the programme in the community. We are indebted to these groups for their interest and commitment to this important piece of work.

Contact

Monica Fitzpatrick
Tel: 028 9032 0157 (ext 250)
Email: here