Under-reporting of Racist Incidents

There appears to be a serious problem of under-reporting:

• the British Crime Survey found that over 50% of people from the Caribbean and South Asian community were not reporting racist harassment to the police

(Aye Maung, N et al (1994) Racially Motivated Crime : A British Crime Survey Analysis. Home Office Research & Planning Unit )

• the London Research Centre found that 43% of racist incidents were unreported

(London Research Centre (1993) London Housing Survey 1992: Harassment in London)

Reasons why victims of racist crime may not report incidents include:

• suspicion that the organisation will not treat the incident seriously

• belief that the agency will not be able to take effective action to deal with the incident

• fear of reprisal if the perpetrator knows they have reported the incident to the authorities

• victims may not know the best organisation to contact, or the best person inside the organisation.

(Home Office (1996) Taking Steps: Multi-Agency responses to racial attacks and harassment: The third report of the inter-departmental racial attacks group)