Mark Walters is a Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology and Head of Research at Sussex Law School, University of Sussex (UK). His research interests are focused primarily on hate crime studies, as well as criminal law and criminal justice reform with a special emphasis on restorative justice practice and theory. He has published widely on the criminalisation of hate and on the use of restorative justice for hate crime. His books include: Hate Crime and Restorative Justice: Exploring Causes, Repairing Harms (2014, OUP), The Globalisation of Hate: Internationalising Hate Crime? (co-ed with J. Schweppe) (2016, OUP) and most recently, Criminalising Hate: Law as Social Justice Liberalism (Palgrave, 2022).

Mark has a particular interest in connecting academic research with policy and law reform. In this regard he has advised (advises) on hate crime to the Home Office (UK), Crown Prosecution Service (England and Wales), Law Commission (E&W), Metropolitan Police Service (London), the London Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, Sussex Police, as well as serving as the external hate crime expert to the international charity Human Dignity Trust. He has also presented research evidence on hate crime to the House of Commons (UK), the European Parliament (Brussels), the Oireachtas (Dublin), the Council of Europe, and the United Nations’ Asia and Far East Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders in Tokyo.

In 2013 Mark co-founded the International Network for Hate Studies which aims to connect researchers, policy makers and practitioners in addressing the causes and consequences of hate crime and hate speech globally. The Network now has over 1,000 members worldwide.