A recently launched campaign addresses race hate crimes and hate incidents. But in its proposed form it won’t be effective enough. New processes and reporting mechanisms are suggested to address this prevalent threat to community wellbeing.
Last month, on 19 January, a new campaign was launched to combat race hate crimes and hate incidents. Its development is the result of a history of research, consultation and collaboration between the community, academics, the NSW Police and Multicultural NSW.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Walton, NSW Police Counter Terrorism and Special Tactics Commander, announced the campaign, acknowledging, “We know there is a significant disparity between the number of hate crimes that occur and the number reported to police, with research telling us that less than 25 per cent of victims come forward.”
We spoke to experts on race hate crimes to understand the scope of the problem and whether this new campaign is likely to make a significant improvement in reporting, and ultimately prevention, of incidents and crimes.
NSW Police differentiate a race- or religion-based hate crime from a hate incident.
A hate crime is “a criminal offence motivated against persons, associates of persons, property or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by an offender’s hate against an individual’s or group’s actual or perceived race, religion, [and/or] ethnic/national origin.”
A hate incident follows the same motivations as a crime, but does not constitute a criminal offence.
‘We know there is a significant disparity between the number of hate crimes that occur and the number reported to police.’
As part of the campaign, education and awareness resources will be available online…
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