Professor Theo Gavrielides, PhD 
Founder and Director of the IARS International Institute, Co-Director of the Restorative Justice for All institute (RJ4All), Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Restorative Justice of Simon Fraser University and Visiting Professor at Buckinghamshire New University.
 
"At the time of writing, the UK is experiencing an unprecedented spike in hate incidents following the EU referendum. Reports to the police increased by 42% in the week before and after the vote. The decision to leave the EU seems to have given to some groups “the licence to behave in a racist or other discriminatory way”, chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland said[1]. As politicians and criminal justice agents try to calm public opinion down, they react with tougher policies and sentences. To some extent, this punitive reaction can be seen as a natural consequence a