Under-recording of Racist Incidents

Under-recording of reported incidents can occur because agencies fail to record or fail to recognise them as racially motivated. The effect is that the true scale of the problem is not reflected in agency data and there are a number of reasons why police figures do not match the British Crime Survey:

• when reporting to the police, victims may fail to mention evidence or perceptions of racism;

• when racist allegations are made, some incidents may not be recorded by the police

• some incidents may be recorded by the police but not as racist

(Percy, A. (1998) Ethnicity & Victimisation: Findings from the 1996 British Crime Survey. Home Office. London.)

This is not peculiar to police service and the same reasons for under-recording could be applied to other agencies.

Adoption of the Code of Practice on reporting & Recording Racist Incidents in Response to Recommendation 15 of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report, will assist Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnerships to establish effective procedures aimed at tackling both under-reporting and under-recording of racist incidents. This will provide improved data, which will help agencies to develop effective solutions in the reduction of racist crime and disorder. http://www.homeoffice,gov.uk/ppd/oppu/coderi.htm