In 2023/24 there were 98,799 racist hate crime incidents recorded by the police service in England and Wales, compared with 103,625 in the previous reporting year.

There were 20,944 incidences of racist hate crime reported by the London Metropolitan Police in the 2023/24 reporting year, by far the most of any police force area in England and Wales. In the same time period, there were 7,466 racist incidents reported in the West Midlands.

In the 2023/24 reporting year there were 140,561 hate crime incidents reported by the police in England and Wales compared with 147,645 in the previous year.

There were 22,839 sexual orientation hate crimes reported by the police in England and Wales in the 2023/24 reporting year, compared with 24,777 in the previous year, with offences for this type of hate crime peaking in 2021/22, at 26,152.

There were 48 religious hate crimes reported by the police in Northern Ireland in 2022/23, compared with 33 in the previous reporting year.

This is a collection of data from the Leicester Hate Crime Project. It includes interview transcripts, survey data, reports, blogs, presentations, end of project conference details, the original proposal, and other information.

To investigate victims’ experiences of hate and prejudice, the study used a mixed methods approach that included: (1) an online and hard-copy survey, translated into eight different languages; (2) in-depth, semi-structured face-to-face interviews; and (3) personal and reflective researcher field diary observations.

From the outset we realised that for practical and logistical reasons we would not be able to attain a statistically representative sample of each of the myriad communities we wanted to hear from. We therefore developed a dual method of administering our survey – via hard copy questionnaires (which were distributed through dozens of community locations in the city, and through educational establishments, charitable institutions and other liaison points) and online – in order to gain as many and as diverse a range of responses as we possibly could. The research team worked with Ipsos MORI, a leading market research company in the UK and Ireland, to develop the survey instrument.

This two-year study examined the experiences and expectations of those who are victimised because of their identity or perceived 'difference' in the eyes of the perpetrator. By exploring hate crime in a broader sense of 'targeted victimisation', the project aimed to investigate the experiences of the more ‘recognised’ hate crime victim communities, including those who experience racist, religiously motivated, homophobic, disablist and transphobic victimisation, as well as those who are marginalised from existing hate crime scholarly and policy frameworks. The study also investigated respondents’ perceptions of criminal justice agencies and other service providers in order to assess the needs of victims and to identify lessons for effective service delivery. The site for the research was Leicester, one of the most plural cities in the UK containing a diverse range of established and emerging minority communities. The research team administered online and written surveys to victims of hate crime within these communities and conducted in-depth interviews to probe issues in greater depth.

In 2023/24 there were 27,454 hate crimes reported by the Metropolitan Police in London, the most of any police force in England and Wales. The police force areas with the second, and third-highest number of hate crimes were Greater Manchester Police, and West Midlands Police, at 10,081 and 9,329 crimes respectively.

There were 3,866 hate crimes committed against Muslims in England and Wales, in the 2023/24 reporting year compared with 3,432 in the previous reporting year.

The Realities Checked Study provides the first systematic and comprehensive account of the crime and criminal justice experiences of Gypsies and Travellers in England since the 1960s. Motivated by the need to challenge and critique popular stereotypes that portray Gypsies and Travellers as inherently criminal, the study seeks to provide a nuanced understanding of the community’s experiences with crime and the criminal justice system. The study’s primary aims were to examine: Gypsies’ and Travellers’ direct and vicarious perceptions of criminal victimisation, hate crimes, and offending; the role of perceived racism and discrimination in shaping offending behaviour and experiences with criminal justice; the impact of criminalisation, policing, punishment, and imprisonment on individuals and communities; and the rationales behind professional engagement with Gypsies and Travellers in the areas of crime, justice, and social policy.

Conducted between October 2020 and June 2023, this dataset employs a mixed-methods approach, including a crime survey of 400 participants of Gypsy and Traveller heritage, 40 oral histories with Gypsy and Traveller community members, 27 oral histories with Gypsy and Traveller prisoners, and interviews with 54 professionals working with Gypsy and Traveller communities. Research took place across England, including Leeds, Norfolk, the South-East (London, Sussex, and Surrey), Devon, and Cornwall. Participants included Gypsies and Travellers living roadside, on sites, on private plots, and in bricks-and-mortar housing. The crime survey focused on gathering data about the frequency of discrimination, racism, and crime experienced by Gypsies and Travellers. The oral histories explored participants’ life stories, including childhood, young adulthood, and experiences with crime. Professional interviews examined the work of professionals and organisations engaging with Gypsies and Travellers in relation to crime and criminal justice.

Historical accounts show that since the arrival in England and Scotland of Romani Gypsies in the fifteenth century, and of Irish Travellers in the nineteenth century, they have been associated with criminal offending. Since then Gypsies and Travellers (G&Ts) have become entrenched in popular, media and political imaginations as criminal predators, bringing property crime, violence, fraud, tax evasion and anti-social behaviour to settled communities. Yet despite five centuries' of such categorisation, there is surprisingly no rigorous evidence assessing the validity of such claims nor systematic assessments of G&Ts' experiences of victimisation. No existing sources of evidence from self-report offending surveys, archival accounts, oral histories, ethnographic or qualitative research can provide an estimate of G&T patterns of offending. Neither can they tell us about how frequently G&Ts are the victims of non-racially motivated crime (e.g. assault, burglary, theft) or hate crimes. This is particularly concerning given the Global Attitudes Survey found 50% of UK respondents held negative views of G&Ts, over double the proportion holding unfavourable attitudes towards Muslims, who have often been the victims of hate crimes. Estimates of offending, victimisation and hate crime are available for other minority ethnic groups.

This interdisciplinary study will produce the first comprehensive, historicized account of G&T experiences of victimisation, crime and criminal justice in two urban and two rural areas of England. Specifically, it will comprise:

(i) a crime survey involving researchers and G&T interviewers looking at G&T victimisation by personal crime (e.g. assault, hate crime) and crimes against the household/family (e.g. burglary, fraud). It will assess attitudes to, and contact with, the police (including stop and search), courts, probation, and prisons. The survey will also ask questions about G&Ts' use of alcohol/drugs and involvement in property, fraud, and violent offences as offenders. It will survey self-ascribing G&Ts who vary by gender, age and settlement (roadside living, official/private caravan sites, unauthorised encampments, and private/social housing);

(ii) community and prisoner oral histories to investigate whether offending over individual lifetimes is linked to experiences of racism and discrimination, and to explore the effects of actions by the police, courts, probation and prisons on G&T individuals and communities;

(iii) interviews with local professionals who have engaged with G&Ts in a variety of contexts, both operationally and strategically (e.g. police officers, Victim Support, housing officers, councillors, Police and Crime Commissioners). These will seek to find out the ways in which G&Ts and their lifestyles are understood and responded to in formal policies and operationally on the ground, as well as documenting where support services may need to be targeted in...

The 705 respondents to the Ethnic Minority Survey are a subset of the BRITISH GENERAL ELECTION CROSS-SECTION SURVEY, 1997 (ICPSR 2615) with an ethnic boost generated by a random screening survey. Eligible ethnic minority respondents for this survey were those who considered themselves to be Black, Indian, Pakistani, or Bangladeshi. The aims of this survey were (1) to measure the extent to which ethnic minority voters are integrated into the electoral process, (2) to evaluate, after taking into account social background, whether members of the main ethnic minorities vote differently from each other and from their white counterparts, (3) to examine whether the political attitudes of ethnic minority voters differ significantly from those of white voters, and (4) to explore whether members of ethnic minorities are influenced by different considerations than their white counterparts in deciding how to vote, and to evaluate in particular the importance of issues of race and immigration in voting behavior of ethnic minority and white voters. Fieldwork was conducted between May 1, 1997, the day of the 1997 British general election, and August 1997. Respondents were asked for their opinions on the existence of prejudice against them, recent improvements in Britain for minorities, the role of the government in improving conditions for minorities, the effectiveness of laws against racial discrimination and racial violence, school programs tailored for minority students, Britain's blasphemy law, state funding of religious schools, the stances of British political parties toward minorities, and the presence of minority figures in British politics. Additionally, topics covered in the Cross-Section Survey include the 1997 election campaign, participation in 1997 local elections, political knowledge, trust in government, images of British leadership, and views on British political parties, the European Union, Northern Ireland, nuclear weapons, unemployment, inflation, nationalization and privatization of companies, redistribution of income, women's rights, the role of government in social policy, abortion, ethnic minorities, the British economy, and the future of governmental institutions such as the House of Lords. Background information on respondents includes age, sex, race, ethnicity, political party, political orientation, marital status, number of members in household, social class, employment history, health insurance status, citizenship, country of birth, voter registration and participation history, household income, education, religion, parents' employment history, parents' voting behavior, spouse's employment history, and union membership.

Data the number of hate crimes which involved violence against the victim in England and Wales from 2015 to 2019, sorted by motivational factor, shows that the highest number of hate crimes was found to be due to racial discrimination. During 2018/19, over 25 thousand racist hate crimes were recorded, a sharp increase compared to the previous years.

In 2022/23 there were 3,866 religious hate crimes committed against Muslims in England and Wales, which was the most of any religion in that year. Jewish hate crime was the second most-common type of hate crime, at 3,282 recorded hate crimes.

This graph shows the number of racist hate crimes against underage persons in Northern Ireland from 2007 to 2017, by year. The number of offences reached an initial peak in 2008/2009, before dropping in the following years. After a minimum was recorded in 2011/2012, crime rates rose again in more recent years resulting in a net increase peaking in the number of reported race hate crimes against children in 2015/2016.

Between 2021 and 2024, the homicide rate for people of the Black ethnic group was 39.8 homicides per million population in England and Wales, far higher than that of the white ethnic group, which was 8.5 victims per million population for the same time period.

In 2011, 87.2 percent of the total population of the United Kingdom were white British. A positive net migration in recent years combined with the resultant international relationships following the wide-reaching former British Empire has contributed to an increasingly diverse population.

Varied ethnic backgrounds

Black British citizens, with African and/or African-Caribbean ancestry, are the largest ethnic minority population, at three percent of the total population. Indian Britons are one of the largest overseas communities of the Indian diaspora and make up 2.3 percent of the total UK population. Pakistani British citizens, who make up almost two percent of the UK population, have one of the highest levels of home ownership in Britain.

Racism in the United Kingdom

Though it has decreased in comparison to the previous century, the UK has seen an increase in racial prejudice during the first decade and a half of this century. Racism and discrimination continues to be part of daily life for Britain’s ethnic minorities, especially in terms of work, housing, and health issues. Moreover, the number of hate crimes motivated by race reported since 2012 has increased, and in 2017/18, there were 3,368 recorded offenses of racially or religiously aggravated assault with injury, almost a thousand more than in 2013/14.

In the 2022/23 reporting year, the police in England and Wales were more than 3.4 times likely to use force against black people, when compared to white people. People of mixed, Asian and other ethnic groups were however likely to have force used against them by police forces.

In 2022/23, there were 948 Islamophobic hate crimes recorded in London, which was a decline on the previous year. The year with the fewest number of Islamophobic hate crimes recorded in London during this period was in 2012/13 when there were 346 hate crimes recorded.

Between 2008/09 and 2018/19, 85 percent of deaths in police custody in England and Wales were white people, who make up 86 percent of the UK population. In the same time period, black people accounted for eight percent of the UK deaths in police custody, while only making up three percent of the total population.