The Justice Minister has outlined how new hate crime legislation will be enforced.
It's understood two tests will be required when deciding whether something is a hate crime or not.
The first test will try to establish what was going on in someone's head when they committed the crime, and the second one will establish whether the person demonstrated hatred when committing the crime.
The planned hate crime legislation will introduce aggravated forms of existing crimes with harsher penalties.
This will include offences committed against someone because of their race, colour, nationality, religion, gender, disability, or sexual orientation.
