Stop Hate Crime – Local picture: who is at risk in North Yorkshire?
WARNING:
This report contains offensive language. These are examples of hate crime that were expressed over the course of this research. This language has not been censored as it is important to understand the nature of this type of crime as it occurs.
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The table shows the combined numbers of recorded hate crime and recorded hate incidents in North Yorkshire during 2013/14.[1]
As expected, the more densely populated areas have higher incident rates. However, in some of the smaller districts, there are noticeable hate crime volumes.
Locally, North Yorkshire has a growing level of diversity in some of the more populous areas. York in particular, experiences a high level of incidents, compared to the county.
| District | Volume |
| York | 219 |
| Scarborough | 145 |
| Harrogate | 103 |
| Selby | 51 |
| Hambleton | 21 |
| Craven | 35 |
| Ryedale | 26 |
| Richmondshire | 13 |
| Total | 613 |
The table below shows levels of victim based crime, based on population estimates from 2013. The figures show that more populous areas have higher levels of crime, but there are some exceptions: Scarborough has a higher level of hate crime for its population, and Harrogate has a lower level.
| District | Est. Pop’n | Victim Based Crime | VB Crime per 1000 |
| Craven | 55,500 | 1565 | 28.2 |
| Hambleton | 89,900 | 2402 | 26.7 |
| Harrogate | 158,200 | 5244 | 33.1 |
| Richmond | 53,900 | 1376 | 25.5 |
| Ryedale | 52,200 | 1297 | 24.8 |
| Scarborough | 108,200 | 6217 | 57.4 |
| Selby | 84,700 | 2833 | 33.4 |
| York | 202,400 | 9587 | 47.4 |
In 2013/14, there were 370 recorded hate incidents and 226 recorded hate crimes across North Yorkshire and York.[2] More than 70% of the hate incidents recorded were racially motivated.[3]
These figures can be broken down further into types of hate. 370 recorded hate incidents in 2013/14 were recorded as follows:
| Type | Volume | % |
| Racial | 269 | 72.7 % |
| Sexual Orientation | 53 | 14.3 % |
| Disability | 22 | 5.9 % |
| Religious | 24 | 6.4 % |
| Transphobic | 2 | 0.5% |
From this, it is clear that race hate crime is a particular area of concern, due to the volume of crime in this category, compared to the others. However, we can assume that these figures only tell part of the story as hate crime is widely underreported.
To determine what the response of the police is and should be to hate crime, it is necessary to establish how far diverse communities make up the population of North Yorkshire and York and assess the relationship between the police and these communities. By their nature, some of these groups may be ‘hard to reach’ for the police, but the level of understanding and engagement may be a factor in the willingness of individuals belonging to these groups to report hate crime (i.e. if the relationship with Safer Neighbourhood Teams and PCSOs is good, there may be more willingness to report).
The following pages will explain the local picture of each of the protected characteristics, and use case studies from police incident records to explain patterns and trends. Information gained through focus groups will affirm and explain the most prevalent issues more deeply.
The scope of this research is to consider groups specific to North Yorkshire and York. As such, some of the focus groups have been with representatives of communities that do not easily fall into the five protected strands: the groups will be included in a 6th section, ‘Other Communities in North Yorkshire.’
[1] North Yorkshire Police, ‘Hate Crime Problem Profile Refresh,’ 2015
[2] North Yorkshire Police, ‘Hate Crime Problem Profile Refresh,’ 2015
[3] North Yorkshire Police, ‘Hate Crime Problem Profile Refresh,’ 2015