Victims of Racial Crime
Highest risk for Pakistanis/Bangladeshis
Risk of being a victim of a racially motivated incident, 1993, 1995 and 1999
In 1999, the risk of being the victim of a racially motivated incident was considerably higher for members of minority ethnic groups than for White people.
The highest risk was for Pakistani and Bangladeshi people at 4.2 per cent, followed by 3.6 per cent for Indian people and 2.2 per cent for Black people. This compared with 0.3 per cent for White people.
Racially motivated incidents represented 12 per cent of all crime against minority ethnic people compared with 2 per cent for White people.
According to the British Crime Survey the estimated number of racially motivated offences in England and Wales fell from 390,000 in 1995 to 280,000 in 1999. The number of racially motivated incidents against Black, Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi people also fell, from 145,000 in 1995 to 98,000 in 1999. This indicates that increased levels of racially motivated incidents as recorded by police statistics, relate to improvements in recording and higher levels of reporting such incidents.
Emotional reactions to racially motivated incidents were generally more severe than for non-racially motivated incidents. In 1999, 42 per cent of victims of racially motivated crime said that they had been 'very much affected' by the incident, compared with 19 per cent of victims of other sorts of crime. Black victims were most likely to report being 'very much affected', 55 per cent compared with 41 per cent for both Asian and White victims.
Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani people are more likely to be victims of household crime than Black or White people. Indians were particularly more at risk of burglary than others.
Sources: Clancy, A., Hough, M., Aust, R. and Kershaw, C. (2001). Crime, Policing and Justice: the experience of ethnic minorities: Findings from the 2000 British Crime Survey, Home Office Research Study 223.
Racially motivated crime: British Crime Survey respondents are asked, in respect of all crimes of which they were victims, whether they thought the incident was racially motivated. Victims are defined as anyone who judged that racial motivation was present in any household or personal crime which they had experienced in the relevant year, including threats. The definition is broadly in line with that recommended by the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, which has subsequently been adopted by the police: “A racist incident is any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person.” (Macpherson, 1999). Household crimes include: bicycle theft; burglary; theft in a dwelling; other household theft, thefts of/from vehicles, and vandalism to household property/vehicles
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