'Hate Hurts' tackling hate crime marketing campaign 2024: evaluation report - September 2025
This report presents findings from an impact evaluation of the Scottish Government's national 'Hate Hurts' marketing campaign on tackling hate crime, which ran in March 2024.
1. Background
Hate crime is the term used to describe behaviour that is both criminal and rooted in prejudice. Hate crime can be targeted at a particular person or an entire group of people and has a devastating impact on victims, their families and communities.
From 1 April 2024, the law in Scotland[1] recognises hate crime based on prejudice towards the following characteristics; age, disability, race, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity and variations in sex characteristics.
The Hate Hurts Tackling Hate Crime marketing campaign was developed to increase awareness that hate crime is still happening in Scotland, to educate the public on the forms that it can take and the devastating impact it can have, whilst asking the Scottish public to report a hate crime if they witness one.
SMART objectives were set for the campaign against a number of key metrics. These are shown alongside results achieved are shown in Section 5.
Contact
Email: Inclusion@gov.scot