An article examined the increase in the number of racially aggravated charges brought in courts in England and Wales since the implementation of the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act.
Source: David Gadd, 'Aggravating racism and elusive motivation', British Journal of Criminology, Volume 49 Number 6
Links: Abstract
Date: 2009-Nov
The government published an action plan on hate crime, including new measures to support victims of hate crime, bring more perpetrators to justice, and increase reporting of the crimes concerned.
Source: Hate Crime: The Cross-Government Action Plan, Home Office (0870 000 1585)
Links: Action plan | Equality impact assessment | ACPO press release | Community Care report
Date: 2009-Sep
A new book examined key conceptual and operational issues surrounding hate crime. It considered whether hate crimes were motivated exclusively by hate; whether they were intended as 'message' crimes, designed to intimidate fellow members of the victim's minority group; and which types of people were responsible for committing hate crimes.
Source: Neil Chakraborti and Jon Garland, Hate Crime: Impact, causes and responses, SAGE Publications Ltd (020 7324 8500)
Links: Summary | Leicester University press release
Date: 2009-Jul
An article examined progress in the policing of hate crime. Some of the more problematic aspects of policing hate crime still presented major challenges, and it was difficult to say with certainty whether the strategic prioritization of hate crime had fundamentally transformed the quality of operational responses.
Source: Neil Chakraborti, 'A glass half full? Assessing progress in the policing of hate crime', Policing, Volume 3 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2009-May
A literature review examined progress in meeting the recommendations of the Inquiry that followed the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993. Although there were some indications of change, most notably in the way in which the Crown Prosecution Service took seriously cases involving racist motivation, there were many ways in which the relationship between the police and black and minority-ethnic groups had not changed significantly from what it was 10 years previously.
Source: Nicola Rollock, The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry 10 Years On: An analysis of the literature, Runnymede Trust (020 7377 9222)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Apr
A committee of MSPs said that it supported proposals for strengthened legislation to protect victims of hate crime. The Bill concerned was subsequently approved in principle by the Scottish Parliament.
Source: Stage 1 Report on the Offences (Aggravation by Prejudice) (Scotland) Bill, 6th Report 2009, SP Paper 225, Scottish Parliament Justice Committee, available from Blackwell's Bookshop (0131 622 8283) | Scottish Parliament Official Report March 2009, columns 15871-15908, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Official Report | BBC report
Date: 2009-Mar
The government published the first annual report on hate crime, bringing together information on the performance of the Crown Prosecution Service in prosecuting racist and religious hate crime, transphobic and homophobic crime, disability incidents, and domestic violence.
Source: Hate Crime Report 2007-2008, Crown Prosecution Service (020 7796 8000)
Links: Report | Pink News report | Womensgrid report
Date: 2009-Feb
A new book examined various dimensions of the impact of the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence (in 1999) on policing policy and practice.
Source: Nathan Hall, John Grieve and Stephen Savage (eds.), Policing and the Legacy of Lawrence, Willan Publishing (01884 840337)
Links: Summary
Date: 2009-Feb