Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, reported hate crimes have risen by 9%, reaching a record number of over 124,000 across England and Wales. Nearly three-quarters of these reported crimes are racially motivated, following an increase of 12% in the year ending March 2021 as Black Lives Matter protests prompted retaliation from the far right. This has been accompanied by a 7% increase in homophobic hate crimes and a 9% increase in disability hate crimes. Whilst Covid-19 lockdown restrictions increased online exposure to disinformation and conspiracy theories, mechanisms for spreading hate and promoting violence, issues such as Brexit have continued to prompt an increase in racially motivated hate crime. However, whilst reports of hate crime doubled between 2015 and 2020, the total number of cases actually being resolved has dropped, with the number of victims dropping out of cases increasing threefold, and the number of cases in which a suspect is identified and action taken against them falling from 14,866 to 14,398. As intolerance continues to rise across the country, it is essential that perpetrators of hate crime face consequences for their actions.

Under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and section 66 of the Sentencing Act 2020, where criminal offences are motivated by hostility towards a protected characteristic, judges are granted enhanced sentencing powers, enabling tougher punishments to be imposed. With regard to policy, the most prominent efforts to tackle hate crime are those included in the government’s four-year hate crime action plan, which ran from 2016-2020, aiming to challenge the beliefs which incite hate crime, as well as improve responses, reporting, support and data collection. This involved working with schools and community partners on educational projects for young people, new funding schemes for both community projects responding to hate crime and for security measures at vulnerable faith institutions, and the publishing of refreshed CPS guidance for the public and for prosecutors. The Home Office has additionally committed to publishing a new hate crime strategy later this year.

However, organisations such as Stop Hate UK have criticised the government for the lack of a coherent strategy on hate crime, arguing that it is not yet being taken seriously. According to experts, the absence of a national standard on hate crime for police forces has created large disparities in the proportion of cases which receive a full response. Additionally, rising awareness of violence against women and girls has prompted continued calls for misogyny to be made a hate crime. Despite Downing Street’s rejection of such calls, the Law Commission’s current review of hate crime legislation includes a proposal to add sex and gender to the list of protected characteristics. Existing legislation has also been challenged on the basis that it prioritises some marginalised groups over others. Current guidelines in sentencing allow harsher sentences for crimes motivated by racial or religious hostility than in instances where the crime is motivated by sexual orientation, disability, or transgender status. Victim Support have argued that this creates a ‘hierarchy of importance’ and the damaging effect of such guidelines has been identified by the Law Commission in their consultation.

This symposium is, therefore, a timely opportunity for delegates from the police, local authorities, minority support groups, lawyers, community support workers and other key stakeholders to discuss and debate strategies to tackle the rise in hate crime and work to promote a tolerant society.

Programme

Assess the impact of the Hate Crime Action Plan and opportunities for a new strategy on hate crime
Analyse the existing legislative framework surrounding hate crime, considering the Law Commission’s proposals for reform
Discuss Scotland’s recent Hate Crime Act, exploring opportunities for further legislative reform across the rest of the UK
Examine the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and other trigger events on the incidence of racial abuse and other hate crimes
Consider the possibility of including sex and gender as protected characteristics, and misogyny’s consequent inclusion as a form of hate crime
Raise awareness of the disparity in sentencing for different forms of hate crime, and consider methods for ensuring equal treatment
Discuss the value of educational programs in tackling hate crime, particularly among young people
Formulate strategies for increasing levels of reporting by victims of hate crime
Explore how the police and authorities can better respond to reports of hate crime within their communities, including in their recording of hate crimes
Consider methods to ensure the safety and wellbeing of marginalised groups across the UK
Raise awareness of the impact of hate crime on marginalised groups, and discuss strategies for providing support for victims of hate crime
Examine the existence of sectarianism in the UK and how to tackle it
Share best practice in local efforts to tackle hate crime and promote tolerance
Assess the impact of social media and online behaviour on levels and forms of hate crime

To register for the briefing, please click here.

Publications from the AIC

The latest crime and justice publications from the AIC and resources from around the world are now available from our Alert Service. Popular topics can be accessed from the drop down list and wherever possible full text is provided via an Electronic Resource link.
Please feel free to share this with your colleagues and let them know that they can also subscribe to the list.

Newest AIC publications
Deaths in custody in Australia 2020-21 (December 2021)
GHB and phenmetrazine use by Australian police detainees (December 2021)
Do violent teens become violent adults? Links between juvenile and adult domestic and family violence (December 2021)
Identity crime and misuse in Australia: Results of the 2021 online survey (December 2021)
Online child sexual offenders' language use in real-time chats (December 2021)
How do child sexual abuse live streaming offenders access victims? (December 2021)

European Crime Prevention Conference 2022: register now!

28 and 29 April 2022, Brussels

The European Crime Prevention Conference is our biennial conference and offers a forum to share knowledge and experiences regarding crime prevention across the European Union.

The main topic of 2022 is partnership approaches in crime prevention:
Co-production of security, partnership approaches, multi-agency crime prevention,… The ideal of working together to make society a safer place is shared by many. But collaborations also present challenges. How to identify the right partners? Who takes the lead? Which information is shared with whom? And how do we make it all work in view of every partner's mandate and competences? Other topics are bullying, the administrative approach, community-oriented policing, violence, domestic burglary and domestic violence. Discover the full programme

22nd Conference of the ESC: “CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN A VIRTUALLY AND PHYSICALLY CONNECTED EUROPE: THE NEED FOR CRIMINOLOGY”

The 22nd Conference of the ESC which will be held from Wednesday 21st to Saturday 24th, September 2022, in Malaga, Spain.

Abstract submission and registration are now open!

Click here to submit your abstract...

The AIC has today released a new report by researchers from Queensland University of Technology and the University of New England.

The research identifies a range of ways in which women were subject to digital coercive control.
Geographic remoteness exacerbates abuse because of the difficulties experienced by victim–survivors in finding and sustaining support networks, allied with the ability of perpetrators to control the narrative in small communities.

Read: Spaceless violence: Women’s experiences of technology-facilitated domestic violence in regional, rural and remote areas

EUCPN webinar: Youth street gangs

Youth street gangs, a predominantly (sub-)urban phenomenon, constitute a particular type of semi-organised crime. While members may be involved in other criminal activities, they are characterised by their allegiance to a geographically defined group (the gang) and their rivalry towards other such groups, which may lead to violence. The webinar (and the upcoming toolbox) will investigate the phenomenon as it presents in the EU and zooms in on what can be done to prevent that young people become gang members.

The webinar takes place on Tuesday 28 June 2022 between 14:00 - 15:00 CET. Participation is free but registration is mandatory.

Spain: Hate Crime Group and Master Plan for coexistence and improvement of security in schools and their environs

The Hate Crimes and Violent Radicalisation Group works on the prevention of radical or violent movements that could attract minors and young people.

The Master Plan includes a series of activities (meetings, talks, exhibitions) to inform minors and the rest of the educational community of the social, family and police problems involved in gang membership. They also learn about the characteristics of gangs, the activities they carry out, how they recruit new members and their ideologies so that they can detect them and prevent them from joining.

More info