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Home » News Centre » Press Releases » CPS racist and religious crime data published

CPS racist and religious crime data published

18/01/2005

The number of defendants dealt with by the Crown Prosecution Service for racially motivated crimes rose by 13 per cent last year according to a report published today.

Between April 2003 and the end of March 2004, the CPS dealt with 4728 defendants and prosecuted 3616, or 76 per cent, an increase of 2 per cent. There can be more than one charge per defendant and 4719 charges were prosecuted, of which 3247 were racially aggravated. The majority were racially aggravated public order offences, dealt with in the magistrates' court. Most of the non-racially aggravated charges were assault and public order offences. The conviction rate for all those charged remains high at 86 per cent compared to 85 per cent in 2002 - 2003.

Ken Macdonald QC, Director of Public Prosecutions said:

"I am reassured that the conviction rate for racially aggravated offences remains high but there is still work to be done. In this report witness difficulties accounted for 26 per cent of dropped charges. We have high hopes that the witness care units, which are being rolled out to all 42 criminal justice areas in England and Wales, will provide more dedicated care to witnesses to help them attend court for all types of case."

In racially aggravated cases where charges were dropped, 45 per cent were dropped because of insufficient evidence, 26 per cent because of difficulties with witnesses and 15 per cent were not pursued on public interest grounds, the most common reason being that the defendant was being dealt with on more serious offences or was already serving a long prison sentence following a separate prosecution.

The report also includes figures for religiously aggravated crimes in 2003 - 2004. Forty-nine cases - each case can have a number of defendants and charges - were finalised. A total of 60 offences were prosecuted, of which 44 were religiously aggravated. The actual or perceived religion of the victim in 22 of the 44 cases was Muslim. In the remaining cases, the victims were Christian (8), Jewish (5), Hindu (3), Sikh (2), Jehovah's Witness (1), and unknown (4)*. A guilty plea was submitted in 50 per cent of offences with an overall conviction rate of 77 per cent.

The breakdown of religiously aggravated offences mirrors racially aggravated offences. Public order was the predominant offence followed by assault, criminal damage and harassment. The majority of the charges were prosecuted in the magistrates' courts. In magistrates', crown and youth courts the overall conviction rate was 77 per cent on religiously aggravated charges and 86 per cent on all charges.

Religiously aggravated case examples:

  • A passenger in a cab subjected the Muslim driver to racially and religiously abusive language and pleaded guilty to religiously aggravated common assault. He received four months imprisonment.
  • Two youths claiming to be Satanists harassed a Christian minister and his family over three months. Both were convicted after trial and received a six-month restraining order and 12 months imprisonment respectively.
  • A 12-year-old Sikh boy was attacked by a 14-year-old Muslim boy who threw a lighted aerosol at him, setting his hair and turban alight. He was convicted of religiously aggravated ABH, sentenced to a three-month action plan order and ordered to pay victim 200 compensation and 100 costs.

Seamus Taylor, CPS Director of Equality and Diversity said:

"'We are pleased to include as part of this year's Racist Incidents Monitoring Scheme Report a full year's data on religiously aggravated crimes for the first time. Whilst there are comparatively few religiously aggravated cases, these are still early days for this new offence. What is significant is that 50% of the 44 victims' perceived or actual religion was Muslim. To build awareness that we will prosecute this type of hate crime rigorously, we will build on our current work and deepen our engagement with all faith communities over the next year. This will include engaging with the Muslim community which should contribute to raising awareness and building confidence in this area."

*The victims in one case were of differing faiths - Muslim and Hindu. Both have been recorded on a "full point basis" rather than "one half" which explains why the number of recorded religions is 45 while the number of cases is 44.

Electronic versions of the report are available on request, and also on our website in the Publications section listed under Reports, as well as the CPS policy on prosecuting racist and religious crime.

  1. For further information contact CPS Press Office on 020 7710 6088
  2. The Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001 amended the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 to create new religiously aggravated offences. This provision came into effect on 14 December 2001. The offences capable of being charged as religiously aggravated offences can be divided into four broad categories:
    • Assaults
    • Public Order offences
    • Criminal Damage
    • Harassment offences

     

    The Act also introduced a requirement for courts sentencing offenders to treat more seriously any offence (other than one of the specific religiously aggravated offences) which was found to be religiously aggravated. (This mirrored the provisions of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 relating to racially aggravated offences).

  3. For clarity half percentage points have been rounded up. The conviction rate for 2003 - 2004 was 85.5 per cent of all offences prosecuted (84.7% per cent in 2002- 2003). The rise in defendants dealt with by the CPS in this period is 12.8 per cent.
  4. The Racial Incident Monitoring Scheme Annual Report 2003-2004 contains information compiled by the Crown Prosecution Service on prosecution decisions and outcomes in all cases identified by the police or CPS as racist incidents between 1 April 2003 and 31 March 2004. It provides the following information:
    • The number of racist incident defendant cases submitted by CPS areas during the reporting period;
    • CPS decisions on charges put by the police;
    • Details of charges prosecuted;
    • Details of charges dropped;
    • Outcomes of charges prosecuted in the Magistrates Courts the Crown Courts and Youth Courts; and:
    • Figures for religiously aggravated crimes
  5. Racially aggravated charges are sometimes withdrawn through lack of evidence or if the victim wishes a retraction, but there can still be a prosecution for the standard offence (e.g. assault or criminal damage). Of the remaining 1472 charges over half were for assault and public order offences.
  6. For the purposes of the report, the police and CPS have used the definition provided in the Macpherson report which states that 'a racist incident is an incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person'. A similar definition has been adopted by the CPS for religious incidents.
  7. Section 28 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 defined an offence as racially aggravated if the offender demonstrates racial hostility towards the victim at the time of, or before or after, committing an offence; or is motivated wholly or partly by hostility towards members of a racial group. It created specific offences of racially aggravated assault, criminal damage, public order and harassment. Additionally, section 153 of the Powers of Criminal courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 (replacing section 82 of the 1998 Act) imposes a duty on sentencing courts to treat evidence of racial aggravation as an aggravating feature, increasing the seriousness of the offence and the sentence to be imposed, in cases where offences are not specifically charged under the 1998 Act.