A collection of news articles, reports, and publications available in the public domain, which are relevant to UK policing.
This is the eleventh Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) hate crime report, and brings together information on CPS performance in prosecuting racist and religious hate crime, homophobic and transphobic crime, crimes against the older person and disability hate crime.
To download the report click here.
The ‘OK’ hand sign has been added to a list of hate symbols after its increased usage by extremist groups. The symbol is becoming commonly used by hate groups as a symbol of white supremacy.
The Anti-Defamation League has stated that whilst the majority of individuals who use the symbol do so to show approval, the public and law enforcement must be made aware of the increased usage by extremist groups.
Source: BBC News
An article in the Metro featuring comments from Nick Lowles, founder of the charity Hope not Hate, has stated that in order to stop the growing threat of far-right extremism, politicians must stop using inflammatory language when talking about immigrants, Muslims and other minorities.
The comments come at the same time as a speech by Neil Basu who named far-right extremism the fastest growing terrorist threat. Mr Lowles noted that when politicians talk negatively, it normalises the rhetoric of the far-right.
In addition to discussing the language used by politicians, Mr Lowles also discussed the need to tackle homelessness and deprivation. He said that feelings of feelings of hopelessness and despair stemming from homelessness and deprivation often lead to extremism, as far-right groups often target feelings of alienation and despair.
Source: The Metro
The group Tell Mama has published its Annual Report 2018 which details cases of anti-Muslim or Islamophobic reports. It details two significant spikes of anti-Muslim hatred in 2018. It also reports a steady increase of anti-Muslim hate crimes both in person and on social media.
The first spike was found to reflect the ‘Punish a Muslim Day’ letters sent out in spring 2018. The second occurred around the time that the then foreign secretary Boris Johnson referred to Muslim women as ‘letterboxes’ and ‘bank-robbers’ in a newspaper column. The week following these comments saw a 375% increase in anti-Muslim incidents recorded.
The report notes that it was most common for anti-Muslim attacks/incidents to take place in public areas. The majority of victims were female (57%), the majority of known perpetrators were male (73%), and 61% were white men.
Source: Tell Mama
A paper written by Dr Chris Allen focusing on the far-right group National Action has stated that the key to understanding National Action was an its ideology and its commitment to enacting it.
The paper discusses how the early demonstrations undertaken by the group appeared similar to those conducted by the EDL and Britain First. Moreover, the paper notes how National Action tried to appeal to a younger audience.
The paper notes the difficulty of studying groups such as National Action due to the members’ distrust of academics, deeming them to be hostile.
The paper can be read in full here.
Source: GOV.UK
The independent Commission for Countering Extremism has published several reports on the subject of countering extremism:
Modernising and Mainstreaming: The contemporary British far-right.
Research by HOPE not Hate. By analysing the rhetoric espoused at a series of major far-right events across 2018 and comparing it to societal polling it becomes evident that large parts of the contemporary far-right’s platform – namely anti-Muslim politics, co-option of the free speech debate and an anti-elite populism – have widespread public support.
National Action: links between the far right, extremism and terrorism.
Research bu the Centre for Hate Studies, University of Leicester. In 2016, National Action made history for being the first far-right group to be proscribed in the UK. Investigating the group’s history, ideology and activities, this article considers how its commitment to a ‘pure’ form of nationalism helped it to transition from non-violent to violent extremism.
Overview of the far-right.
Research by the Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats, Lancaster University. The paper provides an overview of the far-right in the UK by covering the various ideological strains that inhabit the far-right space as well as some of their different aims and objectives. The paper also sets out some of the available indicators of the scale of far-right support in the UK.
Talking our way out of conflict: critical reflections on ‘mediated dialogue’ as a tool for secondary level Countering Violent Extremism (CVE).
Research by University of Manchester and Tim Parry Jonathan Ball Peace Foundation. The paper reflects on a researcher-practitioner collaboration in conducting a mediated dialogue between young people from an ‘Islamist’ milieu and from an ‘extreme right’ milieu. It situates the intervention in the literature on the effectiveness of intergroup contact in reducing prejudice and on social cohesion and suggests how it might be developed for use in community led counter extremism practice.
Violent extremism tactics and the ideology of the secretarian far left.
Research by King’s College London, the University of Bristol and Goldsmiths University of London into British far-left secretarian groups. These groups were defined as small, ideologically homogeneous groups which reject parliamentary politics as a route to socialism and instead aspire to become ‘vanguard parties’. There was a strong correlation between the belief system disseminated by the secretarian far left – termed as ‘revolutionary workerism’ – and sympathy with violent extremism tactics. There was also a positive relationship between ‘anti-imperialist’ geopolitical ideology and sympathy for violent extremism, in that those that saw the US and the UK as a greater threat to world peace than NATO strategic adversaries such as North Korea.
Extremism in England and Wales: Statistical summary of responses.
The Commission for Countering Extremism carried out a consultation between November 2018 and January 2019 that aimed to improve understanding of extremism and its impact on individuals, communities and wider society. The Commission was interested in two cross-cutting issues, the interaction between online and offline spaces, as well as the drivers of extremism. The call for evidence asked for information on 5 themes:
According to the latest figures, transgender hate crimes recorded by the police in England, Scotland and Wales have increased by 81%. Moreover, data from the BBC has found an increase in crimes from 1,073 in 2016/17 compared with 1,944 in 2017/18 across 36 police forces.
The Home Office has responded by saying that the increase was largely due to better reporting and recording. However, the charity Stonewall have said that the figures highlight the issue of transphobia throughout society.
Source: BBC News
The full paper from the European Journal of Criminology can be found here.
Abstract
Hate crime research has increased, but there are very few studies examining hate crime offenders. It is, therefore, difficult to determine to what extent those who perpetrate this offence might be different from those who have not committed hate crime. This study is the first to provide an account of the demographics and criminal histories of those serving time in prison for committing a hate crime. It is based on a large complete population of offenders in the UK. Hate crime offenders released from prison were found to have prolific criminal careers, having committed a wide range and large number of different types of offences. When compared with those who committed a general (non-hate) violent offence, violent hate crime offenders were significantly older and were considerably more prolific in their previous offending. Violent hate crime appeared quantitatively, as opposed to qualitatively, different from violent non-hate crime, but this was less clearly true when those who had committed public order hate crime were compared with other public order offenders. Interventions to reduce the later offending of violent hate crime offenders should be based on the effective interventions that exist for violent offenders, but should take into account knowledge about the surprisingly prolific criminal careers of hate crime offenders.
Metropolitan Police commander Adrian Usher has suggested that there should be a move away from language such as ‘peaceful protest’ and to instead use the term ‘lawful protest’. This is as a result of growing threats being made to politicians as part of yellow-vest and Brexit-related protests when these protests are classified of peaceful.
It has been argued that many of the threat towards MPs would not be acceptable if said to people in other jobs and roles. Moreover, if such threats were made, action would be taken.
Source: The Independent
The Government has published its Integrated Communities Action Plan. This plan, built upon the proposals set out in the Integrated Communities Strategy green paper and consultation response, contains a range of cross-government measures to support the commitment to build strong, integrated communities.
Police Horizon Scanning 