Race-based ‘hate crimes’ show sharp rise in Britain

LONDON: Britain saw a sharp rise in the number of hate crimes recorded by police last year with the vast bulk of offences motivated by race, official figures showed yesterday.

There were 52 528 hate crimes in the 12 months to March, up 18% on the year before, with the Home Office suggesting that the increase was owing to more victims coming forward and the police becoming better at identifying such offences.

Hate crimes are defined as a criminal offence which the victim believes was motivated by a personal characteristic such as race, religion or disability.

Separate government figures based on statistics over the past three years from the annual Crime Survey, which collates figures from interviews with the public, suggested there were an estimated 222 000 hate crimes on average a year.

Prime Minister David Cameron said the rise was unacceptable and Karen Bradley, the government minister for preventing abuse and exploitation, said they would develop a newplan to stop them.

“Crimes motivated by hatred or hostility towards someone because of race, religion, sexual orientation, genderidentity or because they are disabled are absolutely abhorrent and this government will do everything to eradicate them,” she said.

All strands of hate crime saw noticeable rises, but the greatest increase was in the number of religiously motivated offences, up 43% on the previous year.

Cameron, who was due to host the inaugural meeting of a new Community Engagement Forum to discuss countering extremism, said police forces in England and Wales would be asked to record anti-Muslim hate crime as a specific category. – Reuters