Publication - Research and analysis

Characteristics of police recorded hate crime in Scotland: study

Published: 23 February 2021
From: Director-General Education and Justice
Directorate: Safer Communities Directorate
ISBN: 9781800047150

This report presents the findings of a study into the nature of police recorded hate aggravated crimes in Scotland. This includes new details on the characteristics of these cases, based on a random sample of police recorded crimes.

Recorded crime in Scotland

Supporting documents

Tables

Notes for tables

Please note:

'*' indicates a value of less than 5, 0.5% or 0.5 per 10,000 population (or based on a figure less than 5) but greater than zero.
Where no records were found a dash (-) has been used to signify this.
All figures for percentages and rates are rounded to the nearest whole number
Totals may not sum to 100% due to rounding

Table 4. Number of hate crimes recorded by the police, by local authority, 2014-15 to 2019-20
	Number
Local Authority	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20
Scotland	7,029	6,786	6,577	6,736	6,327	6,448
Aberdeen City	315	302	259	258	241	277
Aberdeenshire	82	55	83	108	107	117
Angus	73	71	56	88	79	77
Argyll & Bute	49	37	55	50	36	34
City of Edinburgh	1,422	1,320	1,324	1,343	1,247	1,209
Clackmannanshire	63	82	73	62	66	85
Dumfries & Galloway	121	97	69	98	112	96
Dundee City	171	192	142	169	190	280
East Ayrshire	110	98	84	106	104	110
East Dunbartonshire	63	61	67	65	61	63
East Lothian	73	48	61	78	65	95
East Renfrewshire	79	51	88	62	41	47
Na h-Eileanan Siar	5	8	7	4	4	14
Falkirk	219	198	199	203	258	271
Fife	392	436	379	398	381	363
Glasgow City	1,857	1,747	1,865	1,867	1,576	1,574
Highland	134	128	76	105	123	75
Inverclyde	64	67	79	69	58	79
Midlothian	93	86	96	79	96	86
Moray	31	25	41	50	59	64
North Ayrshire	140	139	115	109	141	135
North Lanarkshire	306	333	281	293	280	310
Orkney Islands	5	9	4	4	2	2
Perth and Kinross	101	92	78	72	69	85
Renfrewshire	192	233	187	178	159	152
Scottish Borders	65	77	56	40	61	80
Shetland Islands	10	8	4	1	8	1
South Ayrshire	82	89	68	84	101	71
South Lanarkshire	264	263	242	269	237	254
Stirling	116	140	125	118	94	111
West Dunbartonshire	73	100	81	58	64	58
West Lothian	259	194	233	248	207	173

Table 5. Rate per 10,000 of hate crimes recorded by the police, by local authority, 2014-15 to 2019-20
Local Authority	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20
	Rate per 10,000
Scotland	13	13	12	12	12	12
Aberdeen City	14	13	11	11	11	12
Aberdeenshire	3	2	3	4	4	4
Angus	6	6	5	8	7	7
Argyll & Bute	6	4	6	6	4	4
City of Edinburgh	29	26	26	26	24	23
Clackmannanshire	12	16	14	12	13	16
Dumfries & Galloway	8	6	5	7	8	6
Dundee City	12	13	10	11	13	19
East Ayrshire	9	8	7	9	9	9
East Dunbartonshire	6	6	6	6	6	6
East Lothian	7	5	6	7	6	9
East Renfrewshire	9	5	9	7	4	5
Na h-Eileanan Siar	2	3	3	1	1	5
Falkirk	14	12	12	13	16	17
Fife	11	12	10	11	10	10
Glasgow City	31	29	30	30	25	25
Highland	6	5	3	4	5	3
Inverclyde	8	8	10	9	7	10
Midlothian	11	10	11	9	11	9
Moray	3	3	4	5	6	7
North Ayrshire	10	10	8	8	10	10
North Lanarkshire	9	10	8	9	8	9
Orkney Islands	2	4	2	2	1	1
Perth and Kinross	7	6	5	5	5	6
Renfrewshire	11	13	11	10	9	8
Scottish Borders	6	7	5	3	5	7
Shetland Islands	4	3	2	0	3	0
South Ayrshire	7	8	6	7	9	6
South Lanarkshire	8	8	8	8	7	8
Stirling	13	15	13	13	10	12
West Dunbartonshire	8	11	9	6	7	7
West Lothian	15	11	13	14	11	9

Table 6. Hate crimes recorded by the police, by aggravator, 2014-15 to 2019-20
Aggravator	2014-15		2015-16		2016-17		2017-18		2018-19		2019-20
Aggravator	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Total	7,029	100	6,786	100	6,577	100	6,736	100	6,327	100	6,448	100
Disability	244	3	239	4	235	4	274	4	260	4	267	4
Race	4,967	71	4,666	69	4,435	67	4,491	67	4,086	65	3,969	62
Religion	520	7	521	8	504	8	504	7	452	7	501	8
Sexual Orientation	1,010	14	1,020	15	1,025	16	1,085	16	1,209	19	1,314	20
Transgender Identity	48	1	45	1	61	1	59	1	87	1	96	1
Multiple aggravators	240	3	295	4	317	5	323	5	233	4	301	5
*Race & Religion*	134	2	153	2	154	2	160	2	82	1	80	1
*Other* *(incl*. Race or Religion)	94	1	126	2	134	2	138	2	116	2	173	3
*Other* *(excl*. Race or Religion)	12	0	16	0	29	0	25	0	35	1	48	1

Table 7. Hate crimes recorded by the police, by type of crime, 2014-15 to 2019-20
Crime/Offence Type	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20
Crime/Offence Type	Number	Number	Number	Number	Number	Number	%
Total	7,029	6,786	6,577	6,736	6,327	6,448	100
Crimes of violence and sexual crimes	153	92	106	143	137	127	2
Crimes of dishonesty	34	31	41	41	35	27	0
Vandalism, fire-raising etc. - of which	290	259	247	250	197	215	3
Vandalism etc.	286	253	240	243	195	209	3
Fire-raising	4	6	7	7	2	6	0
Other crimes	43	35	38	55	76	56	1
Offences - of which:	6,316	6,161	6,144	6,215	5,881	6,022	93
Common assault	822	714	828	886	786	752	12
Threatening or abusive behaviour	2,432	2,772	2,939	3,031	3,086	3,301	51
Breach of the peace etc.	190	138	103	107	56	81	1
Racially aggravated harassment	249	187	178	216	375	409	6
Racially aggravated conduct	2,196	1,904	1,668	1,561	1,134	1,054	16
Communications Act 2003 offences	377	406	375	364	418	412	6
Other offences	50	40	53	50	26	13	0
Unknown crimes	193	208	1	32	1	1	0

Table 8. Proportion of victims ¹ where the crime occurred at their place of work, by hate aggravator
	Disability	Race	Religion	Sexual orientation	Transgender identity	Total²
Victim not working	93%	59%	71%	77%	92%	65%
Victim working	7%	41%	28%	21%	8%	34%
Retail and other service industries	*	31%	11%	11%	5%	24%
Other industries³	5%	10%	16%	11%	*	10%
Unknown	-	*	*	*	-	1%
Number sampled⁴	224	777	160	214	92	1,527

1. Including only crimes where the victim was not a police officer in the line of duty, a business or organisation.
2. Includes all hate aggravators and calculated using weighted values as discussed in the Discussion of relative sample weights for summary analysis section.
3. Includes victims working in Education, Health, Prison, Other emergency services and Public transport
4. Excludes those cases discussed in the Records excluded from the analysis section.

Table 9. Gender and median age of victims ¹, by hate aggravator
	Disability	Race	Religion	Sexual orientation	Transgender identity	Total²
Male or all male group	50%	64%	57%	68%	37%	63%
Female or all female group	49%	30%	38%	26%	55%	32%
Mixed group	*	5%	4%	5%	*	4%
Other / Unknown	-	1%	-	-	5%	1%
Median age	35	36	38	30	26	35
Number sampled³	224	777	160	214	92	1,527

1. Including only crimes where the victim was not a police officer in the line of duty, a business or organization.
2. Includes all hate aggravators and calculated using weighted values as discussed in the Discussion of relative sample weights for summary analysis section.
3. Excludes those cases discussed in the Records excluded from the analysis section.

Table 10. The relationship between the victim ¹ and perpetrator, by hate aggravator
	Disability	Race	Religion	Sexual orientation	Transgender identity	Total²
Partner / ex-partner	6%	2%	6%	4%	*	3%
Family³	4%	1%	3%	*	*	1%
Acquaintance⁴	56%	34%	29%	43%	46%	37%
Professional⁵	7%	6%	4%	7%	*	6%
Stranger	21%	52%	49%	39%	34%	48%
Unknown	6%	5%	8%	6%	11%	5%
Number sampled⁶	224	777	160	214	92	1,527

1. Including only crimes where the victim was not a police officer in the line of duty, or a business or organization.
2. Includes all hate aggravators and calculated using weighted values as discussed in the Discussion of relative sample weights for summary analysis section.
3. Includes members of the same family, excluding partners and ex-partners.
4. Includes where the victim has a prior relationship with the perpetrator but are not family members, partners or ex-partners, such as friends, neighbours, work colleagues and classmates.
5. Including where the victim has a professional relationship with the perpetrator such as a social worker or teacher.
6. Excludes those cases discussed in the Records excluded from the analysis section

Table 11. Location of the crime, by hate aggravator
	Disability	Race	Religion	Sexual orientation	Transgender identity	Total²	Police officer victims²
	Non-police officer victims¹						Police officer victims²
Dwelling	28%	19%	22%	26%	17%	20%	10%
Open space	28%	35%	33%	29%	35%	34%	25%
Public Sector	14%	7%	7%	9%	5%	7%	10%
Public Transport	4%	3%	*	6%	*	3%	*
Remote³	17%	9%	14%	13%	28%	11%	2%
Retail and hospitality	6%	26%	15%	15%	10%	22%	3%
Police Facility	-	*	-	-	-	*	49%
Other⁴/ Unknown	3%	2%	7%	*	*	2%	-
Number sampled⁵	225	794	189	215	92	1,571	367

1. Including only crimes where the victim was not a police officer in the line of duty.
2. Includes all hate aggravators and calculated using weighted values as discussed in the Discussion of relative sample weights for summary analysis section.
3. Remote includes cases where the victim and perpetrator where not in the same location (including the use of phone calls and cyber-enabled technologies).
4. Includes leisure or community centres, places of worship, sporting venues and other businesses
5. Excludes those cases discussed in the Records excluded from the analysis section.

Table 12. Proportion of crimes ¹ that were cyber-enabled, by hate aggravator
	Disability	Race	Religion	Sexual orientation	Transgender identity	Total²
Cyber-enabled	12%	6%	8%	9%	27%	7%
Not cyber-enabled	88%	94%	92%	91%	73%	93%
Number sampled³	225	794	189	215	92	1,571

Table 13. How the crime ¹ was reported to the police, by hate aggravator
	Disability	Race	Religion	Sexual orientation	Transgender identity	Total²
Total victim reported	79%	85%	69%	85%	85%	84%
Victim	64%	76%	65%	69%	75%	74%
On behalf of victim³	15%	9%	4%	16%	10%	10%
Witness	16%	11%	24%	10%	7%	12%
Police on patrol or dealing with another incident	*	2%	6%	2%	*	2%
Perpetrator	*	1%	*	*	*	1%
Other / Unknown	3%	1%	*	2%	7%	1%
Number sampled⁴	225	794	189	215	92	1,571

Table 14. Gender and median age of perpetrators ¹, by hate aggravator
	Non-police officer victims²						Police officer victims³
	Disability	Race	Religion	Sexual orientation	Transgender identity	Total³	Police officer victims³
Male or all male group	67%	71%	85%	81%	76%	73%	87%
Female or all female group	31%	27%	14%	18%	21%	25%	12%
Mixed group	*	2%	*	*	*	2%	*
Unknown	-	*	-	-	-	*	*
Median age	20	30	39	29	22	30	28
Number sampled⁴	196	596	124	162	68	1,174	365

1. Including only crimes where a perpetrator was identified.
2. Including only crimes where the victim was not a police officer in the line of duty.
3. Includes all hate aggravators and calculated using weighted values as discussed in the Discussion of relative sample weights for summary analysis section.
4. Excludes those cases discussed in the Records excluded from the analysis section.

Table 15. Ethnicity of victims, by hate aggravator1
	Percentage
Disability hate crimes
White Scottish	80%
Other White British	14%
All other ethnicity groups	5%
Religion hate crimes
White Scottish	58%
Other Ethnic Group	7%
Other White British	6%
Other White	5%
Pakistani, Pakistani Scottish or Pakistani British	5%
Arab, Arab Scottish or Arab British	5%
All other ethnicity groups	14%
Sexual orientation hate crimes
White Scottish	75%
Other White British	13%
Other White	6%
All other ethnicity groups	6%
Transgender hate crimes
White Scottish	64%
Other White British	29%
Other White	4%
All other ethnicity groups	2%

1. Information on the ethnicity of victims for racially aggravated hate crimes is provided in Table 18.

Table 16. Ethnicity of perpetrators ¹, by hate aggravator ²
	Percentage
Disability hate crimes
White Scottish	79%
Other White British	14%
All other groups	7%
Religion hate crimes
White Scottish	82%
Other White British	8%
All other ethnicity groups	10%
Sexual orientation hate crimes
White Scottish	83%
Other White British	9%
All other ethnicity groups	8%
Transgender hate crimes
White Scottish	76%
Other White British	19%
All other ethnicity groups	5%

1. Including only crimes where a perpetrator was identified.
2. Information on the ethnicity of perpetrators for racially aggravated hate crimes is provided in Table 18.

Table 17. What prejudices were shown by perpetrators, by hate aggravator
Disability hate crimes (n=225)
	Percentage
Learning disability	59%
Physical disability	21%
Unspecified disability	17%
Race hate crimes (n=794)
Black	35%
Pakistani	26%
Polish	7%
English	6%
Chinese	3%
White	3%
Gypsy / Traveller	2%
Other East Europe countries	2%
General xenophobia	15%
Unspecified race	4%
Religion hate crimes (n=189)
Catholicism	42%
Islam	26%
Protestantism	12%
Judaism	7%
Sexual orientation hate crimes (n=215)
Gay	69%
Lesbian	25%
Other sexual orientation	3%
Transgender hate crimes (n=92)
Transgender community	85%

Table 18. Ethnicity of victims and perpetrators and estimated volume of crimes for racially aggravated hate crimes
	Victims¹		Perpetrators²
Ethnicity category	Proportion (%)	Estimated volume	Proportion (%)	Estimated volume
White Scottish	10%	320	78%	2,160
Other White British	7%	230	11%	310
White Irish	2%	60	2%	40
Gypsy / Traveller	*	*	-	-
White Polish	8%	240	1%	40
Other White	8%	230	1%	20
Mixed or multiple ethnic group	3%	90	*	*
Pakistani, Pakistani Scottish or Pakistani British	18%	580	1%	20
Indian, Indian Scottish or Indian British	6%	190	*	*
Bangladeshi, Bangladeshi Scottish or Bangladeshi British	1%	40	-	-
Chinese, Chinese Scottish or Chinese British	2%	60	-	-
Other Asian	9%	290	1%	20
African, African Scottish or African British	12%	380	2%	60
Other African	*	*	-	-
Caribbean, Caribbean Scottish or Caribbean British	*	*	-	-
Black, Black Scottish or Black British	2%	60	*	*
Other Caribbean or Black	2%	50	*	*
Arab, Arab Scottish or Arab British	3%	110	*	*
Other Ethnic Group	4%	120	1%	30

1. Including only crimes where the victim was not a police officer in the line of duty, or a business or organisation.
2. Including only crimes where a perpetrator was identified.

Contact

Email: JusticeAnalysts@gov.scot

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