Hate crime in London

According to the Crime Survey for England and Wales there are an estimated 278,000 hate crimes committed on average every year. 

In London hate crime has been soaring since 2013. Looking only at the offences which were reported and proceded with, the total number of such offences has almost doubled in just four years - from 10,402 in 2013 to 19,283 in 2016 (table 1). 

The increase is felt across London, with a growth rate higher in those areas already affected by high incidence of hate crime, Central and East London (Table 2). 

Race accounts for the main bulk of hate crime offences. Table 3 shows how each crime segment contributes to the overall figures. Race offences not only are the most significant, they are growing at the fastest rate.

The most obvious reason for this may lie with the ‘Brexit effect’ which has caused over 40 per cent increase in hate crime in the England and Whales since June 2016. For example, following the EU referendum, Some members of the Muslim communities have been confronted by an unwelcome climate. Similarly, the Jewish community has suffered a significant increase of racist attacks. Such an antagonistic climate has been further exacerbated by President Trump whose antics need no further explaining.

However, there hate crime is also committed by some of the 3 million foreign nationals  (2011 census) who made London their home over the past few years. Migrants may bring with them their own set of values and inner belief systems, which is likely to collide with an indigenous society who have their own set of values, customs and traditions. 

Education is key to dispel negative attitudes in order to promote social inclusion/integration. To this end, Youmanity is committed to deliver projects designed to foster a better understanding of minorities and the people marginalised by society. It is hoped that such projects may have a positive impact on the incidence of hate crime figures.

Studies by renowned researchers like Steve Machin, Olivier Marie and Suciča Vujić indicate that the relationship between education and crime in the UK is a causal one. In addition, the costs of crime avoided – far exceed the costs of education, banking a net benefit for society.                

Limitations

The data for this research was released by the Metropolitan Police Service for Youmanity. It includes ‘detected’ offences only. It is possible that a single record can contain multiple flags, thus featuring under multiple hate crime categories. As a consequence, the number of offences obtained summing up the figures for each hate crime type (Table 3) is slightly higher than the total figures shown by Table 1.

References

Machin, S. Marie, O. and Vujić, S. (2011): The Crime Reducing Effect of Education, The Economic Journal, 121 (May) 463-484.

Machin, S. Marie, O. and Vujić, S. (2012): Youth Crime and Education Expansion, German Economic Review.