Religious hate crimes in city at lowest level in seven years
THE number of religiously motivated hate crimes is continuing to fall in Glasgow.
But the number of recorded incidents of hate crime based on sexual orientation has increased, as has disability hate crime.
The Scottish Government believes the official figures do not reflect the true nature of hate crimes and is encouraging more people to report incidents to the police.
Figures released by the Crown Office show the number of racially aggravated crimes in Glasgow in the last year remained static at 930, the lowest since 2010/11. This was a drop from 972 two years ago and from the highest of 1296 i n 2011/12.
Religiously aggravated crime also fell to the second lowest in the last eight years. There were 188 recorded crimes last year, down from 208 the previous year and from a high of 370 in 2010/11.
Glasgow accounts for almost one-third of all religiously aggravated crime in Scotland.
Across Scotland, there were 642 religiously aggravated charges reported in 2017-18.
While race and religion saw a decline, hate crime based on sexuality has, while showing a drop last year, been increasing over the longer term.
Last year there were 270 cases, down significantly from 345 the year before.
However, the pattern over the last eight years has seen it rise from 186 and 259 in the first two years of recording.
Disability-related hate crime has also increased to the highest recorded, with 55 reported last year, up from 31 the year before.
Even though it is falling, race hate is the highest of the seven categories recorded, both in Glasgow and across Scotland, where there were 3249 racially aggravated crimes reported, the lowest since 2003/4.
The Government said the increases were a welcome sign more people were willing to report attacks.
Community Safety Minister Annabelle Ewing said: “It’s reassuring to see more people are coming forward to report hate crime, in particular disability hate crime.
“A significant amount of work has been done by Police Scotland, the Crown Office and community organisations over the past year to ensure this is happening.
“But I still believe this isn’t the full picture and remain concerned that crime motivated by prejudice is under-reported and would urge anyone who experiences it to ensure it is reported properly.”