Summary: Reports of hate crime in Scotland have increased and research indicates that the trauma experienced by victims of hate crime can be more enduring and harmful than non-hate related offending and that it has detrimental effects on communities as well as individuals. There is a clear role for criminal justice social work in this area in working with perpetrators. Rania Hamad, City of Edinburgh Council spoke to us about her research on the topic, which aims to define ‘hate crime’ and highlight the complexities around definitions; provide an understanding of the scope and nature of hate crime in Scotland and Edinburgh, with a brief outline of the harms of hate crime; explore the causes of hate crime, including individual and wider structural causation; outline the ‘characteristics’ of hate crime perpetrators including a discussion around risk assessment; explore what can be learned from hate crime interventions; explore ‘best practice’ for practitioners in this area of work; and to highlight gaps in current knowledge.
