NCJ Number
174588
Editor(s)
B Webb
Date Published
1997
Length
43 pages
Annotation
A survey of all 43 police agencies in England and Wales sought to collect basic information about the nature of the offenses and the police responses in the approximately 13,000 racially motivated incidents recorded by the police in 1996-97.
Abstract
The research also included site visits to 4 police agencies, where police officers were interviews about their processing of 88 cases. Results revealed substantial variation among agencies in what is actually recorded and counted. Each agency has developed its own form for recording racially motivated incidents. Fifty-eight percent of the incidents involved either property damage or verbal harassment. Few incidents resulted in formal sanctions for the perpetrators. Two agencies had decided to make a priority of dealing with racially motivated incidents. In addition, police officers who had received specific training in how to handle such incidents were more aware than other police of the available legislation, particularly section 4A of the Public Order Act. However, few police officers were completely aware of these provisions. Findings indicated the need for several kinds of actions to improve the handling of these incidents. Figures, tables, appended forms and text of legislation, list of other publications from the same organization, and 7 references