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Understanding hate crime statistics for London

Is hate crime going up or down in London?

Year on year, for over 7 years, reported homophobic hate crime has risen but is this because there is more hate crime or more people are reporting them? Furthermore, statistics for transphobic hate crime are now included.

The answer is we can't be certain, but it's probably a combination. More importantly, the rate of sanction detections (solving crime) has fallen year on year over 7 years. Get angry about that!

Liaising with stakeholders, analysing local intelligence, and following news media, MENRUS.CO.UK believes there is a sustained upward trend in hate crime BUT we will always qualify this by saying this is partly due to more people reporting and improvements in data collection and analysis.

When you read a 'sensational' headline that says hate crime statistics are "truly shocking" or "worse than ever" check to see whether the piece qualifies what it is they are saying. Even when hate crime statistics don't make for pleasant reading, they should be reported accurately. This doesn't always happen.

For a breakdown of statistics, go to the LGBT+ Independent Advisory Group, which crunch the numbers monthly.

LGBT+ Independent Advisory Group

What are Homophobic offences?

According to the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS):

• Hate incidents
  A Hate Incident is any incident which the victim, or anyone else, thinks is based on someone’s prejudice towards them because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or because they are transgender. Not all hate incidents will amount to criminal offences, but those that do become hate crimes. Evidence of the hate element is not a requirement. The victim need not perceive the incident to be hate-related. It would suffice if another person (even a police officer) did perceive that the incident was hate-related.
• Hate crimes
  The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have agreed on a common definition of hate crime: "Any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a person's race or perceived race; religion or perceived religion; sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation; disability or perceived disability and any crime motivated by hostility or prejudice against a person who is transgender or perceived to be transgender."
• Homophobic targeted hate crime
  A homophobic incident is defined as: ‘Any incident, which is perceived to be homophobic by the victim or any other person.’ (That is directed to impact on those known or perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people)

What are Sanction Detections?

We found this definition of Sanction Detections from Full Fact:

• Sanction detections
  According to the Home Office, Sanction detections are detections where offences are resolved through a formal sanction - including being charged or receiving a caution. Not all sanction detections lead to a conviction. In cases where a defendant is charged the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) may not decide to proceed with the case and the defendant can always be found not guilty.

Sanction detections (under solving crime) | Full Fact