Reported hate crimes in England and Wales increase 18% News
Reported hate crimes in England and Wales increase 18%

[JURIST] Home Office statistics [materials] revealed Tuesday that hate crimes in England and Wales have risen by 18 percent over the last year. Police recorded [Huffington Post report] 52,528 hate crimes between 2014 and 2015, which were motivated by factors including race and religious hatred, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity. The Home Office suggested that this number did not necessarily reflect as dramatic an increase in assaults as it suggested, as “likely factors” in the rise also included improvements in the recording of such crimes, victims being more willing to report the crimes and a greater awareness of hate crimes throughout the community. The report followed an announcement by Prime Minister David Cameron that anti-Muslim hate crimes will be recorded [press release] as a separate category of crime in England and Wales. This same practice has been followed for crimes against Jewish people for some time. He has also stated that new funding will be provided in order to increase security at religious buildings. Speaking on the matter, Home Secretary Theresa May stated, “Hate crime has no place in Britain and I am determined to make further progress to ensure we can eradicate this deplorable act.”

Hate crimes persist throughout the world. In April the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Rita Izsák, called on [JURIST report] the countries of the world to focus on human rights struggles of the Roma people and to take action to end discrimination and racism. In February Amnesty International stated [JURIST report] that Bulgarian authorities are failing to address hate crimes, leading to a state of fear. In January a criminal court in Paris convicted [JURIST report] three people of hate crimes for tweeting homophobic messages on the social media site Twitter. In 2012 Chile enacted [JURIST report] an anti-discrimination law, following the March beating-to-death of a young gay man in a Santiago park. In 2011 a UN official said that hate crimes against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people are on the rise worldwide [JURIST report]. In 2010 a report stated [JURIST report] that more than 50,000 hate crimes were reported over that year in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.