The BCS data can be used to identify a number of patterns in respect of hate crime perpetration: •
•
•
•
Where victims are targeted because of their race or sexual orientation, it is likely to involve more than one offender (60% and 52% respectively). In contrast, incidents based upon gender and disability are more often committed by individuals (73% vs 59%). The gender of hate crime offenders is overwhelmingly male, albeit participation in hate offences motivated by sexual orientation, age and disability involves female participation in around 18% of cases. For most types of hate crime, roughly one-third of offenders are aged under 24. The exception to this is hate crime on the basis of sexual orientation where 77% of offenders were aged over 25. There are some interesting trends in relation to offender ethnicity. The BCS suggests that just under one-third (31%) of offenders involved in racially motivated hate crime, were themselves visible ethnic backgrounds (VEM) backgrounds. A similar level of VEM involvement was found for hate crime offences motivated by gender.
As noted above, it is not possible to disaggregate data for Wales from these figures. Nevertheless, while we must be cautious of making any claims from this data it still may provide some indication of key contours of the problem, and in terms of providing a comparator for some uniquely Welsh data. The All Wales Hate Crime Survey was established to develop a more comprehensive picture of the experience and impact of hate crime across Wales. Based upon a survey of 1,810 respondents, 564 of whom were victims, some limited data about hate crime perpetrator characteristics in Wales can be extracted from the survey 7 . To commence this analysis, Figure 3 displays the total number and percentages of offenders identified as being involved in hate crimes in Wales, divided by gender.
7
The AWHC survey adopted a quota sampling strategy which oversampled the recognised equality strands and victims of hate crime/incidents. As a result, the sample is not a reliable basis for ‘hard’ measures such as prevalence. It does however provide a sound basis for ‘soft’ measures such as perceptions, attitudes and feelings. Any reference to prevalence should therefore be interpreted with a degree of caution.
45