The number of hate crimes reported by the police in England and Wales increased by 26% to 155,841 in the year ending in March 2022, according to figures from the Home Office.
More than two-thirds, or 109,843, were motivated by racism.
However, there were 4,355 reports of crimes against transgender people, up 56% from the previous year.
The Home Office stated that the total increase could be attributed to improved police documentation and that fewer crimes were documented under Covid restrictions in 2020-21.
The increase in crimes against transgender individuals may be because “transgender issues have been actively addressed on social media in the past year,” as stated in the report.
The number of hate crimes based on a victim’s sexual orientation grew by 42% to 26,152.
A hate crime is an offense committed against a victim because of his or her ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity, or disability.
Occasionally, a person may be targeted for more than one of these, such as someone who is assaulted for being both Asian and Muslim or for being both gay and transgender.
The majority of recorded offenses were an assault against the person, violations of public order, or criminal damage and arson.
After two years of reductions, the number of reported religiously-motivated hate crimes rose to 8,730, the highest level in a decade.
About one-fifth of these incidents targeted Muslims, while Jews were the second most frequently targeted religious group.
Welsh police forces alone registered 6,295 hate crimes, an increase of 35% and a new national high.
‘Speaks volumes
The Race Equality Foundation’s Jabeer Butt stated, “Alarm bells should be ringing for everyone viewing these statistics.
“The growth in all types of hate crimes, with racially motivated crimes being the most prevalent, says volumes about views in England and Wales toward minority groups. This sort of conduct has no place in contemporary Britain.”
Leni Morris, from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) anti-abuse organization Galop, described the increase in transphobic hate crimes as “staggering,” but in keeping with the rise in the number of individuals accessing Galop’s support services for victims of hate crimes.
“Some will try to argue that this increase just demonstrates that the LGBT+ community’s faith in the police is growing – that this is not an increase in incidences, but rather in the number of people coming forward,” she said.
“We strongly disagree with this assertion. In the past six months, demand for our hate-crime support services, including the National LGBT+ Hate Crime Helpline, has increased by 19%.
