Mayor of London sets out Hate Crime strategy for capital

The Evening Standard and The Independent report on the publication of a report by the Mayor of London’s Office for Policing and Crime’s documenting the rise in hate crime in London and outlining its hate crime reduction strategy.

The report reveals that since October 2011, the number of recorded offences in each monitored category of hate crime (race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity) has increased. Racist and religious hate crimes make up the largest proportion of offences accounting for 88.4% of all hate crime. While 74.7% of all hate crimes were flagged as race and religion based, 13.7% were related to faith alone and the data indicates that, overall, the volume of faith hate crime offences are increasing.

The report also observes spikes in hate faith offences in the wake of national and international events such as the murder of Lee Rigby in May 2013. The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan Howe revealed last summer that anti-Muslim hate crime had increased eightfold in the two weeks after Lee Rigby’s murder. While the report mentions the percentage rise in anti-Semitic incidents during the Gaza conflict (in July 2014, 95% of faith hate crime offences were anti-Semitic incidents), there is no mention of the percentage increase in anti-Muslim hate crime in the months after Lee Rigby’s murder. Earlier data from the Met Police put the increase at May – 139%; June – 197%; and July – 122%.

In terms of the profile of hate crime victims, self-identified ethnicity was given as 32% Black, 31% White and 29% Asian. However, the report acknowledges that the largest number of victims of street-based, anti-Muslim hate crime are female, as attacks are often based on appearance and dress. Comparatively, the profile of hate crime offenders indicated that 80% were male and 45% were White British.

The report acknowledges that hate crime is significantly under-reported and references the Home Office hate crime report findings in 2013 which found that 43% of personal hate crimes are not reported to the police.

The report concludes that as racist and religious hate crimes are the most reported attributing this to such crimes being “on the statute books since the 1960s”. However, there is significant evidence that anti-Muslim incidents are under-reported, including in a research study carried out by the University of Leicester.

The report further provides an analysis of the number of court proceedings for hate crimes. Assault makes up 19% of the total number of defendants proceeded against. In comparison, harassment, criminal damage and public order offences account for 81% of defendants facing court proceedings.

The report also reveals that the conviction rate for all hate crime prosecutions is 78% while the attrition rate has increased from 18% to 22%. In October this year, the CPS revealed that the conviction rate rose from 82.6% in 2012/13 to 84.7% in 2013/14.

As part of the Hate Crime Reduction Strategy, the report reveals the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime plans to tackle hate crime so as to:

• Disseminate hate crime resources for educational institutions
• Develop a pan-London awareness campaign leading up to Hate Crime Awareness Week in 2015
• Develop a smartphone crime reporting app for hate crime and pilot it by 2015
• Develop a third party telephone reporting mechanism across London to supplement existing local mechanisms
• Work with the Ministry of Justice to develop resources within the True Vision hate crime reporting information website that are specific to London
• Work with the Metropolitan Police Service to develop a hate crime hotspot map in London in order to facilitate the targeting of resources at communities at most risk
• Improve the use of enhanced sentencing by judges in ‘hostility-based offences’ by urging the Home Secretary to introduce new sentencing guidelines for hate crimes and the recording of enhanced sentences on the Police National Computer.

The Law Commission noted these recommendations in its report on whether hate crime offences should be extended to cover disability and homophobic hate crime.

The report further notes that the use of correct classification of hate crimes during the reporting phase could play a role in addressing under-reporting.

An interesting omission in the report which otherwise covers the increasing number of hate crime offences committed online deals with the disparity in legislation covering incitement offences.

The report notes the “rapid rise of online hate crime which can be both aimed at inciting hatred against groups or targeting at individuals.

“Although the internet may allow perpetrators of hate crime to target a broader swathe of victims, often behind a veil of anonymity, users are still bound by existing laws against inciting hatred and harassment on the basis of race, religion, transgender or sexual orientation, and disability. Online hate crime is still hate crime and perpetrators can still be pursued for their offences.”

The wider protection given to groups defined by race, such as Jews and Sikhs, in the Public Order Act and the weakening of the provisions in relation to groups defined by religion, as covered in the Incitement to Racial and Religious Hatred Act, means that Muslims are particularly vulnerable to online abuse that has no recourse for prosecution under law.

Incitement to religious hatred focuses on “threatening words or behaviour” but not “insulting or abusive words or behaviour”, as is the case with incitement to racial hatred. Moreover, in relation to religious hatred “intent” is a key factor in prosecution something that does not apply in relation to racial hatred where prosecutors can proceed if words or behaviour are “likely to stir up hatred”.