Racist incidents, England and Wales 2011/12
Published 13 September 2012
Applies to England and Wales
© Crown copyright 2012
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/racist-incidents-table-england-and-wales-2011-to-2012--2/racist-incidents-england-and-wales-2011-12
1. Introduction
This release contains figures on the number of reported racist incidents to police forces in England and Wales (excluding British Transport Police). A ‘racist incident’ is any incident, including any crime, which is perceived by the victim or any other person to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice based on a person’s race or perceived race.
2. Key findings
The overall number of racist incidents recorded by the police decreased over the 3 years studied. In 2009/10 there were 55,134 racist incidents. This figure fell 6 per cent to 51,585 in 2010/11. Then there was an 8 per cent fall in the number of incidents to 47,678 in 2011/12.
Between 2010/11 and 2011/12 there was a decrease in the number of racist incidents recorded in 27 of the 43 police force areas.
3. Data tables
Number of reported racist incidents by police force area in England and Wales, 2009/10 to 2011/12 can be found in the Racist Incidents table.
3.1 Number of racist incidents, England and Wales 2009/10 to 2011/12
Chart notes
Source: Home Office, Racist Incidents table: Table RI.01
4. Data quality and interpreting the figures
Racist incidents include notifiable offences, non-notifiable offences (e.g. some types of anti-social behaviour), incidents that were not subsequently recorded as crimes and ‘no crimes’, (see the User Guide to Crime Statistics for England and Wales). Conversely, certain race hate crimes may not have been initially recorded as racist incidents if the racial motivation was not immediately apparent. Consequently, the racist incidents total does not match the race hate crimes total.
This is the third year that racist incident statistics are being published by the Home Office.
These are currently official statistics. Whilst accreditation for National Statistics has not yet been sought from the UK Statistics Authority, the principles and protocols in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics have been followed where possible to ensure best practice.
These data have been confirmed with police forces and are correct as at 3rd September 2012.
5. Other data sources
Hate crimes, England and Wales 2011/12 are published simultaneously with this release by the Home Office. Hate crimes differ from racist incidents as they solely include notifiable offences (see the User Guide to Crime Statistics for England and Wales).
Racist incident statistics appear biennially in the Ministry of Justice publication Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System which brings together statistical information on how members of the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic community are represented in the CJS as suspects, offenders, victims and as employees/practitioners. From 2011, breakdowns by ethnicity have been published for all statistical series ahead of this publication.
Data from the 2010/11 Crime Survey for England and Wales on the extent of and perceptions towards hate crime were published in 2012 in Hate crime, cyber security and the experience of crime among children 2010/11.
The True Vision website provides information about hate crime and how to report it.