Hate Crime, England and Wales, 2015/16
Figure 2.1: Number of racially or religiously aggravated offences recorded by the police by
month, April 2013 to March 2016
4,500
Lee Rigby murder
4,000
3,500
2,500
2,000
Charlie Hebdo
shooting
Conflict in Israel
and Gaza
1,500
1,000
500
0
Publication
of Jay report
(Rotherham)
Paris
attacks
Apr-13
May-13
Jun-13
Jul-13
Aug-13
Sep-13
Oct-13
Nov-13
Dec-13
Jan-14
Feb-14
Mar-14
Apr-14
May-14
Jun-14
Jul-14
Aug-14
Sep-14
Oct-14
Nov-14
Dec-14
Jan-15
Feb-15
Mar-15
Apr-15
May-15
Jun-15
Jul-15
Aug-15
Sep-15
Oct-15
Nov-15
Dec-15
Jan-16
Feb-16
Mar-16
Number of offences
3,000
Source: Police recorded crime, Home Office
The improvement in the recording of offences by the police was mentioned above as a possible factor
for the increase in police recorded hate crime. The increase in racially or religiously aggravated
offences between February and July 2015 seen in Figure 2.1 matches the general trends seen in
police recorded violence and public fear, alarm or distress offences over the same time period.
Furthermore, there is an increase in both aggravated and non-aggravated offences at the beginning of
2015. It is therefore possible that improvements in police recording may have been a more important
factor in the increase in racially or religiously aggravated offences following the Charlie Hebdo
shooting, rather than the actual incident.
These trends can be seen in Figure 2.2, where an indexed chart shows assault with/without injury,
public fear, alarm or distress and their racially or religiously aggravated equivalent offences. As can be
seen, aggravated and non-aggravated offences have tracked each other relatively well over the last
three years. As shown later in Section 2.2, 89 per cent of overall hate crimes are for violence against
the person (which includes assault with/without injury) and public fear, alarm or distress offences.
6