Hate crimes on the rise

There’s no denying that we are living in real difficult times. The austerity measures imposed by the coalition government and the rising unemployment figures do nothing to ease fears. And now it seems that racist attacks and other hate crimes are on the rise.

A report released by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) shows that nearly four fifths of hate crimes dealt with by the courts in 2010/11 were racist attacks.

There were around 15,284 hate crime prosecutions during this period, with 12,711 race-related. Of these, 83 per cent of cases led to a conviction. While these are figures of cases that actually went to court, the reality, some fear, is that the figure of racist abuse and other hate crimes is much higher. The CPS figures revealed that there has been a ten per cent rise in hate crime prosecutions.

The report comes at a time when the issue of racism seems to be a hot topic at the moment. The start of the year saw two men jailed for the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence over 19 years ago. But the two high profile cases involving footballers has put the issue firmly at the top of the agenda.

Liverpool striker Luis Suarez was found to have racially abused Manchester United’s Patrice Evra during a Premier League tie back in October. At the weekend, the Uruguayan further inflamed the situation after refusing to shake Evra’s hand, something he has since apologised for. Former England captain John Terry will go on trial in July for racially abusing QPR defender Anton Ferdinand. Terry denies the charges. There have been further cases of current and former players being abused, not only in the stands but also on social media site Twitter.

Prime Minister David Cameron is to hold a Downing Street summit to discuss the issue and the sport’s authorities and players’ representatives are due to take part in the session later this month.

Keir Starmer QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, said,

“All crime is unacceptable but offences that are driven by hostility or hatred based on personal characteristics are particularly damaging to any civilised society. The CPS has an important part to play in tackling hate crime in our society, and I am encouraged by these statistics that we are on a firm footing to continue that fight. There is a lot more that needs to be done, within society as a whole, particularly in the area of crimes against the disabled community as I have already acknowledged.”