Very interesting, very thoughtful report into the supposed "problem of hate crime" in the UK. In the whole world it's only in the UK & Ireland where it's the victim, not the police, who define whether a crime is a "hate crime" or not, and as you might expect, that makes quite a difference. As the reporter says, "looking at someone funny" could count as one...
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Radio 4 - The Report, 26 Nov 2009
Hate Crime in the UK
Simon Cox
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How real is the hate crime rise?
BBC News
26 November 2009
Simon Cox
Is Britain the most hostile country in the Western world? That is the implication from new figures out this month from the OCSE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) which puts the UK top of a world league table for reported hate crimes with 46,300 logged in 2008. The figure is far beyond those recorded for other countries, but is the picture really that bleak?
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BBC: UK hate stats may be overblown
Christian.org.uk
26 November 2009
A BBC report is set to ask whether Britain is really “the most hostile country in the Western world”, or just has a woefully elastic definition of ‘hate crime’. Over 46,000 hate crimes were recorded in Britain last year, placing the nation at the top of an international league table compiled by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
But an investigation by a BBC Radio 4 programme, The Report, asks if the true picture is “really that bleak”. ... It will suggest that the figures may be massively inflated because “if the victim or a witness believes the crime is motivated by some kind of hatred, it will be recorded as a hate crime”.
The Report concludes that this vague and very subjective definition of hate crime “may well explain why some police forces are seeing big rises in their recorded crimes and why the UK tops a list of over 50 countries for hate crimes”. Posing the question: “Does this mean Britain is more hateful than other nations?”, reporter Simon Cox’s answer is a clear “No”.
The investigation cites the example of young trainee policeman James Parkes who received serious injuries when attacked in Liverpool in October. The media reporting of the assault on PC Parkes has focussed on his homosexuality, and Liverpool police are treating it as a ‘homophobic’ hate crime. But The Report heard that PC Parkes was beaten up after he intervened in an altercation between a gang and nightclub doormen while off duty. “If true,” the investigation concludes, “this version would turn an iconic hate crime into a still serious but altogether different kind of assault.”
Investigating the 2008 hate crime figures, The Report finds that much of what is labelled as hate crime is “low level anti-social behaviour or neighbourly disputes that have escalated and got out of hand”. Dr Neil Chakraborti, a criminologist at Leicester University, said “I think it is a fine line between anti-social behaviour and a hate crime,” adding that it can be difficult to judge when low level abuse and harassment become a hate crime.
The Report also warns that the Government’s hate action plan, launched this summer, will only confuse matters more. It says that initiatives like establishing specialist hate crime courts, obliging all public bodies to record and report all hate crimes and incidents and requiring schools to report all bullying with hate elements could be counter-productive. It cautions that if such schemes are implemented “we may end up with a picture of the UK that is much more hateful than the reality and may not reduce the levels of this type of crime”.
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