Crimes (Motivation) (Hansard, 17 July 1998)

§ Mr. Michael

The Directorate is in the process of commissioning a study of religious discrimination which is intended to clarify the extent of overlap between religious and racial discriminations. Furthermore, the Directorate plans to publish a report later this year on the police racial incident figures. This will cover the kind of incidents (including those between different religious groups) which the police may record as being racially motivated).

From the information collected centrally, it is not possible to determine the number of offences or incidents of homophobic crime. The Home Office collects statistics on the number of recorded offences by categories which include violence against the person, indecent assault on a male, indecency between males and rape of a male. However, there is no way of identifying which offences had a homophobic element.

In 1996, the Association of Chief Police Officers published a set of Good Practice Guidelines for Dealing with Homophobic Incidents. This included a definition of what should be regarded as a homophobic incident: Any incident which appears to either the victim, investigating officer or any other person to be motivated by homophobia, that is animosity towards lesbians and gay men".

The guidelines also recommended that police forces should record and monitor such incidents.

Such information that is available on homophobic crime is contained in surveys. For example, in a survey of gay men carried out in Lewisham as part of the Lewisham Safer Cities project in 1992, the vast majority reported experience of verbal abuse (81 per cent.) and approaching half reported being attacked physically. Property offences were less commonly reported.

Stonewall, as an organisation which campaigns for the civil rights of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals, has carried out a nationwide survey and key findings included:

three quarters reported experiencing verbal abuse on at least one occasion;
over a third of men and a quarter of women reported experiencing violence in the last five years because of their sexuality;
some groups, such as black, Asian, disabled and young respondents, had greater risk of victimisation.

Both studies found repeat victimisation was common. They provide useful information, although it must be acknowledged that they may not provide a representative sample.

With regard to crimes connected to religious hatred, most such crimes are likely also to have an element of racial hatred. As such, they will fall within the very wide definition of a racial incident first adopted by the police in 1985: Any incident in which it appears to the reporting or investigating officer that the complaint involves an element of racial motivation; or any incident which includes an allegation of racial motivation made by any person".

In prosecutions of crimes with a racial element under existing legislation, an element of racial motivation may be treated as an aggravating factor by the courts at the point of sentencing. The Crime and Disorder Bill [Lords] also makes provision for a set of new, specific racially aggravated offences, where the maximum sentence exceeds that for their non-racially motivated equivalent. In addition, my right hon. Friend, during the Report stage of the Bill, undertook to monitor charges and sentences in areas where there is intercommunal violence between religious and racial groups, to ensure that the provisions do not unduly favour one group.