Hate crime statisticsHate crime statistics
16 Jun 2014 12:48 PM
Ministers condemn all forms of prejudice and
welcome possible increase in reporting.
All forms of hate
crime have been condemned by Ministers as figures show a rise in some
categories of offences and a decrease in religious hatred.
Hate Crime in
Scotland 2013-14 was published as Equalities Secretary Shona Robison and
Community Safety Minister Roseanna Cunningham met with LGBT and disability
organisations in Glasgow.
At the event,
Ministers stated the Scottish Government’s commitment to tackling all
forms of prejudice and welcomed work to increase confidence to encourage people
to come forward and report crimes.
The Crown Office
publication shows that:
- Racial
hate crime is up slightly, by three per cent since 2012-13 but is still the
second lowest annual figure since reports began
- Sexual
orientation aggravated crime has risen by 22 per cent
- Religiously aggravated offending is down by 17 per cent
including charges under the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening
Communications (Scotland) Act
- Disability aggravated offences are up by 12 per
cent
- The
number of charges with an aggravation of transgender identity remains low at
25, although this is higher than 14 the previous year
- In the
second full financial year of the Offensive Behaviour Act charges under section
1 decreased by 24 per cent
Equalities
Secretary Shona Robison said:
“No one
should have to face discrimination or prejudice in any form in 21st century
Scotland. It is never acceptable and it will not be tolerated.
“That’s why we have been working closely
with organisations and police to eradicate hate crime from Scottish society,
running an awareness campaign to help encourage people to report such crimes
and setting up third party reporting centres across Scotland. We have also
widened hate crime laws to include sexual orientation, transgender identity and
disability and a new offence of engaging in threatening or abusive behaviour.
We want people to come forward, and would encourage anyone who believes they
have been a victim of hate crime to report it.
“The fact
that we are investing over £60 million from the Equality budget during
2012-15 to tackle inequality and discrimination, more than double the funds in
2004-07 shows that we take this issue very seriously.
“The more we
talk about it, the easier it will be for people to report hate crimes to the
authorities. We are not becoming more intolerant as a society, but we are
becoming less tolerant of those who hold prejudiced beliefs.”
Community Safety
Minister Roseanna Cunningham said:
“Religiously
aggravated offending has gone down by 17 per cent. That is very encouraging and
testament to the hard work taking place to tackle these offences.
“We have
invested £9 million between 2012-15 in community projects and set up an
independent advisory group to tackle the scourge of sectarianism.
“I also
welcome the drop by almost a quarter in the number of charges under section 1
of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Act. Most
football fans are well behaved and most matches are trouble free with an
average of only one charge being reported for every five games.
“We have
committed to review the legislation after two years but today shows that strong
action is being taken to tackle the actions of the small minority of fans who
indulge in offensive behaviour at football.”
Superintendent
Gavin Phillip, Police Scotland Safer Communities Division said:
"Police
Scotland recognise that Hate Crimes are bigoted acts towards often marginalised
and vulnerable communities, which can have long lasting effects and are
completely unacceptable. That is why tackling this abhorrent crime is one of
our Equality and Diversity outcomes and an operational priority.
“We do
however recognise that in some cases victims or witnesses of Hate Crime do not
feel confident reporting the matter directly to the Police and may be more
comfortable reporting it to someone they are familiar with or to an
organisation they know. We have therefore been reviewing all of our Third Party
reporting sites to ensure that we have adequate geographical coverage across
Scotland, as well as providing sites, which cater for particular community
needs. The staff in those sites have also received additional training from
local officers to ensure that they can assist a victim or witness in submitting
a report to the Police. In addition Hate Crime can now be reported on-line
through the Police Scotland website"
Colin MacFarlane,
Director of Stonewall Scotland:
“'The
sad reality for many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Scots is that that
they face hate crime every day at home, in their communities and their
workplaces. Whilst any single hate crime incident is one too many this increase
suggests that more LGBT people feel able to report these crimes to the police.
This is a positive development. Stonewall Scotland’s research shows
however, that more than a third of LGBT people still don’t feel confident
in reporting such incidents to the police and we will continue our work with
Police Scotland to address this. The figures show that there has been lots done
but there is still lots to do.”
Jan Savage, Head
of Campaigns & Policy, Enable Scotland said:
“Whilst a
rise in disability related hate crime is concerning, at ENABLE Scotland we
realise that this is also a strong indicator that more and more disabled people
are exercising their rights to report hate crimes and reclaim their communities
and the right to feel safe. What this also tells us is that there is a real
need to tackle the root causes of disability related hate crime, and work
harder to change attitudes about disability. 90 per cent of people who have a
learning disability have been bullied at some point in their lives, and less
than 1 in 3 people with a learning disability are able to name at least one
close friend. This is unacceptable. We are working in partnership with
Strathclyde University to design an exciting new resource for schools to use to
educate pupils about learning disability and promote understanding of
difference. Thanks to Scottish Government funding, we are also working with
other organisations to develop a campaign to raise awareness of learning
disability and encourage positive attitudes, and we are looking forward to
launching these in November 2014. By working together, we can support people
who have learning disabilities to live free from fear of hate crime and
bullying, and hopefully start to see reports of hate crime move in the opposite
direction.”
Notes To
Editors
Hate Crime in
Scotland 2013/14 is available at: http://www.crownoffice.gov.uk/
Religiously
Aggravated Offending in Scotland 2013-14 is available at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2014/06/1659
Charges Reported
under the Offensive Behaviour at Football & Threatening Communications
(Scotland) Act 2012 is available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2014/06/8566
The Offences
(Aggravation by Prejudice) Act (Scotland) 2009 created statutory aggravations
for those targeted as a result of their sexual orientation, transgender
identity or disability, and the Criminal Justice and Licencing (Scotland) Act
2010 created a new offence of engaging in threatening or abusive behaviour,
sought to harmonise the application of existing hate crime law and improve
recording of racial and religiously aggravated offences.
Detailed research
on religiously aggravated offending and Offensive behaviour at football is
currently collected and published, following a Scottish Government commitment
made following the Joint Action Group of 2011.