Critical Evaluation of Hate Crime in the United Kingdom

Running head: CRITICAL EVALUATION OF HATE CRIME IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

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CRITICAL EVALUATION OF HATE CRIME IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
Introduction
The word hate crime could be defined as the crime that an individual or groups of
individuals commit against another individual of different culture, race, ethnicity, sexual
orientation or religion. Hate crime has increased remarkable in the contemporary era with
increased incidences of hate crimes being committed against people of ethnic, cultural, racial and
religious minority. In the United Kingdom, hate crimes saw a sharp increase especially after
Brexit referendum was passed in 2016.
In the present review, a critical evaluation of the hate of crime of the people in the UK
will be conducted. This will be done using evidences from the literature including journal
articles, news stories and other credible sources. The review will provide relevant theoretical
perspectives in the field and the key debates or issues surrounding it. In addition, the leading
figures in this filed will be identified and their contribution will be discussed.
Discussion
Hate crime in the UK prior to Brexit
The origin of hate crimes could be traced back in era when colonialism was at peak.
However, the word began to be used during the 1980s in the United States. As Gerstenfeld
(2017) states, individuals and governments began committing hate crimes long before the word
actually came into existence. The Christians persecuting the Romans or the Nazis slaughtering
the Jews, these were all instances of hate crimes. In the UK, hate crimes had been present since
long because UK has been the most dominating country in the world in the past and most people
are still of the view that they are superior to others. This creates tension and subsequent hate
crimes. The official definition of hate crime in the UK was introduced in the year 2007. The

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CRITICAL EVALUATION OF HATE CRIME IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the Police Service, the National Offender Management
Service and other such agencies came up with a common definition of hate crime. It was defined
as “any criminal offence which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated
by a hostility or prejudice towards someone based on a personal characteristic”
(Assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, 2019). The five strands that were included are race, faith or
religion, sexual orientation, disability and gender-identity. The rate of hate crime was on the rise
during the 2011 to 2013 period as per the Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW) report.
Around 280,000 incidences of hate crimes were reported during the two years constituting 3% of
the overall crime committed (Assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, 2019).
However, after the Brexit referendum, hate crimes had a sudden and sharp increase.
Many European nations questioned the attitude of many UK politicians who were seen fueling
the hate crime, as Burnett (2017) notes. The author then found that places where the immigrant
share was higher had higher incidences of hate crimes. While the world media was critical of the
hate crimes being committed in the UK, the British media had a rather negligible coverage on the
issue. According to the observations of Fotopoulos and Kaimaklioti (2016), most of the British
newspapers and news channels addressed the post-Brexit hate crime as “the Great Brexit Hate
Crime Myth”. Nonetheless, The Guardian provided an extensive report on the rise of hate crimes
by people after the referendum. The newspaper stated that there was an increase of 123% in hate
crimes in 2017-2018 as compared to the 2012-2013 data. Religious hate crimes increased by
40% especially after the “letterbox” comment made by Boris Johnson, a Member of Parliament
in Britain (Weaver 2019). Johnson had made the controversial statement that women in burqas
or veils looked like letterboxes.
Debates surrounding the hate crime in the UK