Hundreds suffer race hate as crimes continue to rise
The changing nature of reported hate crime and the levels reported in Sunderland have been discussed by city leaders.
Recorded hate incidents rosefrom426in2018toalmost 500in2020,roughlytwothirds of which saw people targeted on the basis of race.
But findings also conceded Sunderland has the second lowestrateofhatecrimeacross Tyne and Wear, only slightly ahead of South Tyneside.
“Overall, hate crime has increased this year,” said Chief Inspector Paul Walters, of Northumbria Police.
“It’sneveragoodthingtosay that crime has increased, but I
genuinely think hate crime is under reported.
“The closer we actually get to accurate reporting, we will be in a stronger position to begin
to understand the issues.
“Nationally, hate crime has increased continuously since 2017andSunderlandhasrisen with that trend.”
Ch Insp Walters was speaking at a meeting of Sunderland City Council’s Scrutiny Co-ordinating Committee.
While racism is an issue for the city, one of the main areas of concern highlighted in the report, produced by the Hate Crime Monitoring Group and the Sunderland Partnership, is disability hate crime, which has seen the biggest rise over the past three years, doubling between 2018 and 2019.
Homophobicoffenceshave alsorisenoverthesameperiod, althoughfaith-basedcrimehas fallen ‘significantly’.
Thefindingsemphasisethe increasesinreportedincidents could be due to people being ‘abletorecognisethattheyhave beenavictimofhatecrimeand feel confident to report it’.
Although it notes such offences constitute a ‘relatively small’ proportion of overall offending, it also notes hate crime rates have spiked in the wake of ‘specific events’, such as the EU referendum and terrorist attacks.
Thecoronaviruspandemic is also cited, with the government’s lockdown prompting ‘noticeable changes in the nature of reported hate crime’.
According to the report, perception of Sunderland as the first ‘leave’ city, prompted a number of far right demonstrations, including appearances by the likes of Tommy Robinson.
It also noted that ‘the majority of those taking part in far-right demonstrations in Sunderland had travelled into the city from other towns and cities across the UK, with little involvement from Sunderland residents’.