Incidents of hate crimes in England and Wales have tripled in the last decade, with a 5% decrease in the most recent year. Despite this decrease, hate crimes against transgender people and those motivated by religion have increased. Experts suggest that changes in police guidance on recording hate crime incidents may explain this decrease in reported cases.
Prof Matthew Williams, the director of Cardiff University’s HateLab, says that the recent decline should be viewed with some skepticism due to the guidance changes. He notes that the decrease is significant, but a significant number of minority communities are still being targeted for who they are.
New guidance from the Home Office instructs police officers to determine if “genuine hostility” is present and to consider if “freedom of speech or thought” applies to an incident. In the 2013-2023 period, the number of hate crimes rose from 41,294 to 145,214. Increases in previous years were attributed to improvements in crime recording by the police and better identification of what constitutes a hate crime, according to a spokesperson for the Home Office.
Dan Harry, a contestant on the UK’s first gay dating show I Kissed A Boy, was a victim of a homophobic hate crime before the show began filming. A group of men harassed him at a London Underground station, using homophobic slurs and threatening to push him onto the train tracks. This incident, along with a significant amount of online hate speech, has led to concerns about the safety of vulnerable communities in the UK
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