Lockdown is blamed for rise in hate crimes
RACIALLY and religiously aggravated offences recorded by police in England and Wales hit a new high in 2020, with more than a quarter of investigations closed without forces identifying a suspect, analysis shows.
The impact of the coronavirus lockdown, along with protests supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, were two of the main factors named by forces as helping to drive the increase in offences, along with improved recording of hate crimes.
A total of 61,851 racially and religiously aggravated offences were recorded in 2020, up seven per cent from 57,825 in 2019. This is also more than double the 28,479 offences recorded in 2013, the first calendar year for which comparable data is available.
In the Avon & Somerset force area, there were 1,936 racially or religiously aggravated offences recorded in 2020, 11 per cent up on the 2019 figure of 1,741.
Independent charity Victim Support called the figures “shocking” and said it was “huge cause for concern that so many cases are left unsolved”, while the Equality and Human Rights Commission warned that although the police had taken “positive steps” in the recording of hate crime, “more still needs to be done to improve the process and the quality of support for victims”.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said forces had worked hard to improve their handling of hate crime, including better recording of offences, adding: “We are working with forces to help them understand and improve the service they provide to victims.”
The figures cover all forces in England and Wales except Greater Manchester Police, who were unable to provide full data from July 2019 to March 2020. Of the 43 forces that did provide complete data, 33 reported a rise in racially and religiously aggravated offences from 2019 to 2020, while 30 forces said numbers last year reached a new high.
The offences – all of which are defined as hate crimes – include racially or religiously aggravated assault, harassment and criminal damage.
The analysis has been compiled by the PA news agency from data published by the Home Office.
The Metropolitan Police recorded the highest number of these offences in 2020 (15,101; up 7 per cent from 14,051 in 2019), followed by West Midlands (5,115; up 23 per cent from 4,145) and West Yorkshire (4,627; down 1 per cent from 4,681).
A spokesperson for the Met said the outbreak of Covid-19 had a “direct impact” on levels of hate crime, with “a rise in reports of racially aggravated hate crime incidents, both on and offline, where certain communities were targeted due to the pandemic”.
At the start of the coronavirus outbreak in the spring of 2020, there was a rise in the number of victims identifying as Chinese or south-east Asian where police were able to detect a link to Covid-19 in the nature of the offence, according to the NPCC - although this trend did not persist through the year.
West Midlands Police said they had seen a rise in hate crime “especially during the pandemic”, with “an increase in neighbour disputes and online social media offences, with lockdown playing a part in this”.
Diana Fawcett, chief executive at independent charity Victim Support, said that throughout the pandemic they had seen high numbers of hate crime victims seeking support, particularly following the easing of lockdowns.