The stigma of a conviction for a hate crime - policy options

Where an individual is convicted of a criminal offence, this will impact on their opportunities for reintegration including their employment prospects. This is referred to as the stigma of a criminal conviction and is well established in the literature. In 2023 we measured the specific stigma associated with a hate crime conviction for the first time, using a sample of the Irish population representative for age, gender and county. It was found that the stigma for a conviction for a hate crime is significantly greater than that for an equivalent non-hate involved offence.

Hate crimes are harmful to individuals and communities, socially divisive, undermining of institutional trust and potentially radicalising. Where an individual is convicted for a hate crime, society has a particular interest in preventing recidivism through rehabilitation and reintegration, particularly when the offender is young. This Briefing Paper will summarise the findings of our research regarding the stigma of a conviction for hate crime and discuss its implications for legislative proposals for addressing same. The statistical research findings we present are drawn from Haynes, A., Schweppe, J., Brown, K. J., & MacMillan, R. (2023). Public understandings of hate crime: Ireland, north and south. University of Limerick. The research report is available in full here.