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Critical Perspectives on Hate Crime pp 45–69Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Acknowledgement, Recognition and Response: The Criminal Justice System and Hate Crime in Northern Ireland

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Hate Studies ((PAHS))

Abstract

Hate crime in Northern Ireland has been a feature of the current peace process, with increasing numbers of low-level incidents over the past twenty years serving as the backdrop to higher-profile cases, such as the murders of Simon Tang in Carrickfergus in 1996, Ian Flanagan in Belfast in 2002 and Thomas Devlin in Belfast in 2005. Sustained attacks on the small Roma community in Belfast, followed by attacks on the Polish community after an international football match and the sectarian murder of Kevin McDaid in Coleraine led in 2009 to the region being dubbed the ‘race hate capital of Europe’ in the media (as it had previously in 2004 and 2006).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See for example http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/3390249.stm, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-392630/Ulster-Europes-race-hate-capital.html and http://news.sky.com/story/708071/ni-racists-bomb-threat-to-immigrants

  2. 2.

    For all 12 reports produced as part of the Challenge Hate Crime project see http://www.niacro.co.uk/challenge-hate-crime/

  3. 3.

    Hate incidents are events that involve prejudice or bias, such as verbal abuse, but which do not necessarily constitute a crime. ‘Hate crimes’ involve a criminal offence and perceptions of prejudice.

  4. 4.

    Reform of policing was a major feature of the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. The Agreement provided for the establishment of an international panel, under the chairmanship of Chris Patten, to produce recommendations for a new approach to policing in Northern Ireland. The Patten Report was published in 1999 and in September 2001 the Royal Ulster Constabulary became the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

  5. 5.

    The author served as a Specialist Advisor to NIAC enquiry into hate crime.

  6. 6.

    The legislation refers to ‘victim’s membership of a religious group’ which the PSNI categorises as either sectarian, for incidents involving members of the Protestant unionist loyalist community and the Catholic nationalist republican community, or as faith/religious for all other incidents or this kind.

  7. 7.

    This table is a composite from PSNI annual statistics. For more detailed data see http://www.psni.police.uk/index/updates/updates_statistics/updates_hate_motivation_statistics.htm

  8. 8.

    This table is a composite from PSNI annual statistics. For more detailed data see http://www.psni.police.uk/index/updates/updates_statistics/updates_hate_motivation_statistics.htm

  9. 9.

    The term ‘sanction detection’ refers to cases where the offender receives a formal sanction such as being charged, summonsed, cautioned or by having an offence taken into consideration at court. For further information see PSNI (2015) User Guide to Police Recorded Crime Statistics in Northern Ireland, [online] available: http://www.psni.police.uk/user_guide.pdf.

  10. 10.

    All data from the Metropolitan Police Service is based on data obtained as a result of a freedom of information request for this research. http://www.met.police.uk/foi/pdfs/disclosure_2011/february/2011010002606.pdf

  11. 11.

    This table is compiled from a mixture of data from the PSNI and the PPS.

  12. 12.

    https://www.dojni.gov.uk/publications/community-safety-strategy-progress-reports-2015

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice,, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland

    Neil Jarman

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  1. Neil Jarman
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Correspondence to Neil Jarman .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland

    Amanda Haynes

  2. School of Law, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland

    Jennifer Schweppe

  3. Department of Applied Social Studies, Maynooth University , Maynooth, Ireland

    Seamus Taylor

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Jarman, N. (2017). Acknowledgement, Recognition and Response: The Criminal Justice System and Hate Crime in Northern Ireland. In: Haynes, A., Schweppe, J., Taylor, S. (eds) Critical Perspectives on Hate Crime. Palgrave Hate Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52667-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52667-0_3

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