Race and crime in the United Kingdom

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The relationship between race and crime in the United Kingdom is the subject of academic studies, government surveys, media coverage, and public concern. Under the Criminal Justice Act 1991, section 95, the government collects annual statistics based on race and crime. [1] [2] [n 1]

Contents

Background

England and Wales crime statistics

A report by the Ministry of Justice written in conjunction with the Office for National Statistics published in 2024 found that ethnic minorities were over-represented across the criminal justice system compared to the white population. The greatest disparity for ethnic minorities existed for the black population, particularly black children in the criminal justice system. The black population make up 4% of the population in England and Wales, but represented 18% of stops and searches; 13% of custodial remands; 12% of the prison population; 10% of prosecutions, convictions and custodial sentences; and 9% of arrests. [4]

Human trafficking

According to a 2006 report by the Joint Committee on Human Rights, evidence suggested that human trafficking tended to be undertaken by criminal networks of "people from the Far East, the Chinese gangs, and eastern European gangs". [7] The United Nations estimates that approximately 136,000 people were trafficked in the UK up to 2018. [8] According to the National Crime Agency (NCA), human trafficking in the United Kingdom is rapidly increasing. [9] The number of potential victims referred to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) rose from 2,340 in 2014 to more than 10,000 in 2020. [10] There was also an increase in convictions from 71.9% in 2019 to 73.8% in 2020. [11]

In 2020, the NCA said criminal, labour and sexual exploitation were the most common forms of exploitation in the UK, and said British, Romanian, Chinese, Vietnamese and Albanians were the most prolific offenders. [12]

UK nationals were the most common nationality of potential victims in 2020, accounting for 34% (3,560) of all referrals. The second most referred nationality was Albanian (15%; 1,638), followed by Vietnamese nationals (6%; 653). UK nationals were most often referred for criminal exploitation, whilst both Albanian and Vietnamese nationals were most often referred for labour and criminal exploitation. Sexual exploitation was also commonly reported for Albanian nationals. [11]

The fall of the Soviet Union and Eastern European communism has been identified as one of the main contributing factors in increases in human trafficking from Eastern Europe. It provided both human capital and new regional opportunities to fuel the expansion. After this period, trafficking expanded, aided by the rise of organised crime and the decline of borders. Porous borders and close proximity to Western Europe have made it easier and cheaper to transport victims within the region and abroad. [13] [7] [12]

Racist hate crime

Research by the Welsh Government and the Equality and Human Rights Commission suggests that most perpetrators of racist hate crimes in the UK tend to be unemployed young white males with previous convictions. [14] [15] The murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 is perhaps the UK's most high-profile hate crime of modern times. [16]

Hate crimes have increased especially around certain events in recent history, such as the EU Referendum in June 2016, the 2017 Westminster attacks, and the widespread Black Lives Matter protests and far-right counter-protests. [17] At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, hate crimes directed at both South and East Asian communities significantly increased. [18] [19]

For the year ending March 2021, 124,091 hate crimes were recorded by police in England and Wales. This was a 9 percent increase over the previous year. [17] For the following year, there was a 26 percent increase form the previous year, with over 155,000 hate crimes reported in England and Wales. A third of all hate crimes were race-related (70%; 109,843 offences) during this period. [20]

In 2022, black people were victims of racist or religiously motivated hate crimes at a rate of 33.8 aggravated offences per million people, Asians at a rate of 16.8 per million, and white people at a rate of 1.5 per million. In the case of white victims, this included victims of xenophobia against people not born in the UK. 42% of religious hate crime offences were targeted against Muslims (3,459 offences), followed by Jewish people at 23% (1,919 offences). [20]

In the year ending March 2024, racist offences accounted for 70% (98,799) of all hate crimes. While racist crimes declined on the whole, religiously motivated hate crimes increased 25%, driven largely by an increase in antisemitic hate crimes and a smaller increase in Islamophobic hate crimes following the onset of the Gaza war. Black people were victims of racially aggravated offences at the rate of 41 per 10,000 population, Asian people at the rate of 24 per 10,000 population, and white people at a rate of 3 per 10,000 population. As in previous years, the number of white victims included victims of xenophobia against people not born in the UK. Jewish people were the victims of religiously motivated hate crimes at the rate of 121 per 10,000 population, more than double the 57 per 10,000 of the previous year. Muslims were targeted at a rate of 10 per 10,000 population, up from 9 per 10,000. [21]

Sexual grooming

This section is an excerpt from Child sexual abuse in the United Kingdom § Group-based child sexual exploitation.[ edit ]

According to the National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (2025), 28.5% of cases of contact sexual abuse can be described as sexual exploitation (17,000 in 2024), whether by individuals or groups. [22]

Group-based child sexual exploitation and localised grooming are terms used to describe the sexual exploitation or grooming of children and adolescents by groups. Group-based child sexual exploitation was first defined in UK law in the Department for Children, Schools and Families' statutory guidance, Safeguarding Children & Young People from Sexual Exploitation. Supplementary guidance to Working Together to Safeguard Children in 2009. [22] The National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse noted that there is a lack of data on group-based offences, with the Complex and Organised Child Abuse Dataset (COCAD) recording around 700 in 2023, i.e. 4% of the exploitation offences. [22]

This abuse tends to target girls who are particularly vulnerable, such as those who are in local authority care. [23] [24] The youngest recorded victim was 12 and the oldest was 18. [25] A 2013 report by the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee describes a group first making contact with the child in a public place. After the group's initial contact with the child, offers of treats (takeaway food, cigarettes, drugs) persuade the child to maintain the relationship. Sometimes a boy similar in age presents himself as a "boyfriend"; this person arranges for the child to be raped by other members of the group. Children may end up being raped by dozens of these group members, and may be trafficked to connected groups in other towns. [26] [24]

In August 2003, a television documentary reported details of an 18-month police and social services investigation into allegations that young British Asian men were targeting under-age girls for sex, drugs and prostitution in the West Yorkshire town of Keighley. [27] The Leeds-based Coalition for the Removal of Pimping (Crop) sought to bring this behaviour to national attention from at least 2010. [28] In November 2010, the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal saw several convictions of child sexual abusers. In 2012, members of the Rochdale child sex abuse ring were convicted on various counts, and in 2016, following the largest child sexual exploitation investigation in the UK, [29] 18 men in the Halifax child sex abuse ring case were sentenced to a combined total of over 175 years in prison. [30]

Following further child sex abuse rings in Aylesbury, Banbury, Bristol, Derby, Huddersfield, Manchester, Newcastle, Oxford, Peterborough, Rochdale, Telford, and others, several investigations considered how prevalent British Asian backgrounds were in localised grooming. In 2011 and 2013, the National Crime Agency's Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) branch collected the available data on group-based child sexual abuse from police forces in England and Wales. It reported that, where ethnicity information was available, 28% (2011) and 75% (2013) of offenders had been recorded as "Asian" by the police. The Home Office said the figures should be treated with caution as the data was incomplete and was at particular risk of bias, and recorded ethnicity was based on police assigning offenders to broad categories, rather than on offenders' own self-report. [31] In December 2017, the think tank Quilliam released a report that said 84% of offenders were of South Asian heritage. [32] This report was criticised by child sexual exploitation experts Ella Cockbain and Waqas Tufail, who said it was unscientific and had poor methodology. [33] [34]

A further investigation was carried out by the British government in December 2020, which concluded that most offenders were probably white, as with most child sexual abuse cases generally, and that there was insufficient data in this area to suggest South Asians, or any other ethnic group, were disproportionately represented among perpetrators. [35] The British government originally refused to release the report but eventually did so after public pressure. [36] In response to the report, then Home Secretary Priti Patel said: "This paper demonstrates how difficult it has been to draw conclusions about the characteristics of offenders." [37] Reviews of the Rotherham, Rochdale, and Telford cases identified several common factors, with offenders often working in night-time industries like takeaways and taxis, providing access to vulnerable children. [37]

In 2025, the government commissioned Baroness Casey to make a detailed audit of these cases, published as the National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. In her audit, Baroness Casey wrote: "Assertions that the majority of child sexual abuse offenders are White, even if true, are at best misleading. In a population with over of 80% of people of White ethnicity, it should always be a significant issue when people from a White background are not in the majority of victims or perpetrators of crime" [22] The review found that there were serious shortcomings in the recording of ethnicity data about perpetrators of group-based sexual abuse. [22]

Street crime

Due to ethnic stereotyping, robbery and drug-related crimes have been popularly associated with black men since the 1960s. In subsequent decades, black people were also stereotypically associated with car jacking and gang violence. [38] [39] British police forces, and especially the Metropolitan Police, have been accused of institutional racism on a number of occasions. One example often cited is the Mangrove Nine, a group eventually acquitted in 1970. [40] In 1995, the London Metropolitan Police commissioner Paul Condon stated that the majority of robberies in London were committed by black people. [41] Operation Trident was set up in March 1998 by the Metropolitan Police to investigate gun crime in London's black community after black-on-black shootings in Lambeth and Brent. [42]

While members of minority ethnic groups are more likely to be arrested, white people have the highest conviction ratio. [43] [44] [ better source needed ] In June 2007, the Home Affairs Select Committee published a report on young black people and the criminal justice system of England and Wales. It said that young black people were over-represented at all stages of the criminal justice system. [45] The Commission for Racial Equality and youth charities welcomed the report. [46] [47] Ministry of Justice figures regarding race and the criminal justice system in 2018 are shown in the table below. [48]

WhiteBlackAsianMixedChinese or other
Population (2018)86.0%3.3%6.8%2.2%1.7%
Stops and searches under Police and Criminal Evidence Act59%22%13%4%2%
Arrests 201878%10%7%3%2%
Prison population73%13%8%5%1%

In the UK, police officers have the power to stop and search individuals under a range of legislation. Statistics have consistently shown that black people are disproportionately more likely to be subject to stop and searches. [49] There is strong evidence that, once stopped and searched, black people are no more likely than whites to be arrested, suggesting that they are disproportionately targeted. [50] Black individuals who are arrested through stop and search are less likely to have further action taken against them (charged or cautioned), [51] it is argued by Phillips and Brown that this would suggest the evidence used to amount to reasonable suspicion for the stop and search was weaker, as the arrest usually leads to nothing more. [52]

Under s.1 Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984

In 2008/2009 in England and Wales, more black people were stopped and searched under Section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act per head of population than any other ethnicity, and black people were seven times more likely to be stopped and searched than whites. [53] [54] Black people were the subject of 14.8 percent of all stop and searches, compared to 7.6 percent of arrests and 6.7 percent of cautions. [55] The disproportionate number of stop and searches is partly accounted for by the fact that 54 percent of the black population in England and Wales live in London, where 40.2% of London's population is either Asian, black, mixed or other in ethnicity, [56] leaving nearly 59% of London's population as white, showing how disproportionate the rate of stop and search is in London. In general, stop and search is used more frequently in London across all ethnic groups, and in some police-force areas, there were more stop and searches per the population of whites than of black people. From 2004/05 to 2008/09, there was an increase in the number of stop and searches of black people relative to whites. [54]

By 2016/2017, it was recorded that a stop and search was 8.4 times as likely to occur for a black person compared to a white person. Similarly, the rate of stop and searches in mixed ethnicity and Asian people was more than twice as likely, when compared with that of a person with a white ethnicity. [57] Between 2019 and 2020, black people were nine times more likely to be stopped and searched compared to a white person. [58]

Under s.60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994

Stop and searches can also be conducted under Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. These searches are designed to deal with the threat of violence. Comparative analysis by researchers at the London School of Economics and the Open Society Justice Initiative has shown that, in England and Wales in 2008/09, black people were 26 times more likely to be stopped and searched than whites. Asian people were 6.3 times more likely to be stopped and searched than whites. The OSI researchers stated that these figures highlighted that Britain had the widest "race gap" in stop-and-searches that they had uncovered internationally. [59] Ben Bowling, a professor of criminal justice at King's College London, commented on the analysis, stating:

The police are making greater use of a power that was only ever meant to be used in exceptional circumstances and lacks effective safeguards. This leaves room for increased stereotyping which is likely to alienate those communities which are most affected. [59]

Between April 2019 and March 2020, the use of stop and search powers under Section 60 Criminal Justice & Public Order Act occurred 11,408 times, which was an increase of 19% from the year prior. [60]

Metropolitan police

In 2020, figures from the London Mayor's office showed black Londoners were almost four times more likely to be stopped and searched, and six times more likely to be stopped in a car, than white Londoners. [61] Subsequently, London Mayor Sadiq Khan published an action plan to address the police force's disproportionate use of these and other powers, such as the use of tasers, against black people on the city. In response, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said the force was "not free of discrimination, racism or bias", and committed to rebuilding trust with black communities. [61] In 2022, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Bas Javid also said the Metropolitan Police had a problem with racism. [62]

Research

Various explanations have been given for the disproportionate representation rates of arrest and imprisonment of black and ethnic minorities. The earliest explanations, in the 19th century, offered a racist framing, focusing on the perceived biological and psychological characteristics of offenders, which were particularly influenced by the work of Charles Darwin and other Darwinists. [63] Contemporary explanations tend to focus on racial bias and discrimination in policing and the criminal justice system, as well as socioeconomic and cultural factors. [61] [62] [64] For example, Diane Abbott, the member of parliament for Hackney said in 2010: "There is no question but that the continuing achievement gap between black boys and the wider school population has some bearing on the involvement of African-Caribbean boys in gangs." [65]

Research published by the Home Office—based on the Offending, Crime and Justice Survey of 2003—found that:

White respondents and those of Mixed ethnic origin were more likely to say they had offended, both on an ever and last year basis than other ethnic groups. This pattern held across offence categories and was also apparent for serious and frequent offending. Conversely, those of Asian origin were least likely to say they had offended. [66]

The report suggests that these differences are partly accounted for by differences in the age profiles of the groups. [66] The Home Office published an updated version of the survey (using 2006 data) showing that once other variables had been accounted for, ethnicity was not a significant predictor of offending, anti-social behaviour, or drug abuse amongst young people. This research suggests that the differences identified in the 2003 study are "attributable to other characteristics of these sample members", rather than ethnicity. The factors controlled for included weak school discipline, parenting, strong parental guidance, socioeconomic class, local drug problems, weak local control, siblings in trouble with the police, household size, gender, and family type. [67]

A report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) concluded that the negative effects of disproportionate stop and search leads to more black and ethnic minorities being initially drawn into the criminal justice system, skewing the stats, skewing perceptions, and disrupting family life, education and work opportunities. [68] Shiner, Carre, Delsol and Eastwood suggest that the disproportionate application of stop and search is largely a function of police policy and decision-making rather than crime and that police policy play a pivotal role in determining which groups are made available for prosecution and pushed deeper into the criminal justice system. [69] control. [70]

Terror crimes

Following passage of the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1974, Irish people were particularly targeted by anti-terrorism powers in the United Kingdom. In 1992, researcher Paddy AR Hillyard concluded that the effects of this legislation amounted to institutionalised racism against Irish people in Britain. [71] Following the 7 July 2005 London bombings, reports of racial, ethnic and religious profiling or assaults by police have increased, especially against British Asians. [72]

In 2021, the proportion of white suspects arrested for terrorism offences had exceeded the number of Asian suspects for the fourth year in a row, according to a Home office report. White people accounted for 54% of all arrests (an increase of 10% over the previous year) while Asian suspects accounted for 26% (a decrease of 12% over the same period). [73] This increase has been attributed to an increased number of police operations against far-right extremists. [73] [74]

Of those arrested for terrorist-related offences between 2011/12 and 2020/21, 44% were reported as being of Asian appearance, 33% White, 13% Black, and 10% Other or Not Known. As of 31 March 2021, 98 (46%) of the 215 prisoners in custody for terrorism connected offences defined themselves as Asian or Asian British, 68 (32%) as White and 18 (8%) as Black or Black British. The majority (73%) of prisoners in custody for terrorism-related offences on 31 March 2021 declared themselves as Muslim. 25 prisoners (12%) were of a Christian denomination. [75]

Right-wing extremism

Far-right extremism among white British men has increased significantly in the United Kingdom, and has been described as the fastest growing terror threat within the United Kingdom. [76] [73] [74] 10 out of 29 terrorist attack plots disrupted between 2018 and 2021 were linked to the far-right. Director General of the MI5 Ken McCallum in his annual threat update of 2021 stated that racism is a significant causative factor in far-right extremism and a major cause for concern. [77] Teenagers, some as young as 13, account for 13% of all suspects of terror-related offences. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick attributed this rise to young people's increased access to extremist content online. [78] [79]

Stop and search statistics

Of those stopped and searched in London under section 43 anti-terrorism powers between 2010/11 and 2020/21, 33% self-defined as white, 28% as Asian or Asian British, and 12% black or Black British. [75] Of all the people stopped and searched under s.43 in 2020/21, 27% self-defined as white, 21% Asian or Asian British, and 12% black or Black British. 33% did not state their ethnicity [75]

Of those stopped for Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 examinations between 2010/11 and 2020/21, 37% self-defined as white, 26% as Asian or Asian British, 19% as Chinese or another ethnicity, and 8% as black or Black British. [75] In 2020/21, of those stopped, 24% were white, 25% Asian or Asian British, 25% were Chinese or another ethnicity, and 7% were black or Black British. [75]

Policing

City of London Police

A stop and search overview from July 2017 to June 2018 found that black people were two times more likely to be stopped than white people in the City of London. When stopped, whites were more unwilling to state their ethnicity than other racial groups. The most common reason for a search was suspected drugs possession. Asians were most commonly stopped in relation to drugs (66%), and then blacks (62%). Whites were subjected to a notable lower level of drug searches (50%). Despite this, whites had the lowest rate of NFA (no further action). For Asians, 60% of individuals were no further actioned and 28% were arrested. For blacks, roughly 61% of individuals were no further actioned and 20% were arrested. For whites, only 53% were no further actioned while the arrest rate was 27%. Overall, blacks had the lowest arrest rate and the highest no further action rate, despite being subjected to twice as many searches as whites. When stopped, whites were the most likely to be found in breach of drug laws, having the lowest corresponding no further action rate. [80]

Metropolitan Police

An anti-knife crime demonstration in Wood Green, north London, October 2019 Anti knife crime demonstration Wood Green Oct. 2019 (3).jpg
An anti-knife crime demonstration in Wood Green, north London, October 2019

Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that in 2007 an estimated 10.6 percent of London's population of 7,556,900 were black. [81] Evidence shows that the black population in London boroughs increases with the level of deprivation, and that the level of crime also increases with deprivation, such that "It is clear that ethnicity, deprivation, victimisation and offending are closely and intricately inter-related". [82]

In June 2010, through a Freedom of Information Act request, The Sunday Telegraph obtained statistics on accusations of crime broken down by race from the Metropolitan Police Service. The figures showed that the majority of males who were accused of violent crimes in 2009–2010 were black. Of the recorded 18,091 such accusations against males, 54 percent accused of street crimes were black; for robbery, 58 percent; and for gun crimes, 67 percent. [83] However, black people tend to have the lowest conviction ratio so arrests from accusations often fail to result in a corresponding conviction. In the same report, Simon Woolley said: "Although the charge rates for some criminal acts amongst black men are high, black people are more than twice as likely to have their cases dismissed, suggesting unfairness in the system"." [83]

In 2017, The Independent reported on statistics from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMICFRS), for the year 2016–17. The Metropolitan Police and City of London Police were among the 43 police forces considered. The report found that white people more likely to be carrying drugs when stopped and searched - despite being searched up to 8 times less than black people. [84] In 2019, The Guardian reported on statistics obtained from the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), for the year 2018. The figures revealed that despite whites being subjected to significantly lower levels of stop and search than blacks, crime was more likely to be detected amongst white Londoners, when they were stop and searched. Whites were more likely to be in possession of weapons and drugs, more likely to be arrested after a search and more likely to be found guilty than black Londoners — despite black Londoners being targeted by police more often. The Guardian quoted figures showing for white Londoners, 30.5% of searches resulted in further action, for Asians 27.8%, and for black Londoners 26.7%. Dr Krisztián Pósch, from the London School of Economics commented: "The data shows that police are not just stopping black people more disproportionately, but are less likely to detect crime when they do compared to when they stop white people”. [85]

Following a Freedom of Information request in October 2023, the Metropolitan Police has published a breakdown of the racial demographics of people charged with various offences committed in London in 2022: [86]

Crimes in London in 2022 by ethnicity of the accused
Ethnicity
Crime
WhiteBlackAsianOtherUnknown
Gun offences26.42%64.15%4.40%2.52%2.52%
Homicide29.12%59.34%9.34%1.65%0.55%
Robbery32.58%52.86%9.12%3.50%1.95%
Knife offences36.50%47.40%11.56%2.49%2.05%

Media

Human trafficking

According to UNODC research, sex stories concerning the victimisation of women and girls disproportionately dominate, often to the exclusion of stories related to labour trafficking and the victimisation of men and boys. The UNODC warns against using stylised images of women and girls in bondage as illustrations for stories as these images perpetuate stereotypes and misconceptions, in particular that trafficking always entails the use of force or restraint. [87] [88]

Racist / hate crimes

Rania Hamad of charity Iriss wrote:

Mass media and political influence can be crucial, with the sensationalist reporting of some events leading to ‘spikes’ in hate crime (eg following the EU Referendum and terrorist incidents). The media can actively create and perpetuate stereotypes about groups which influence individual consciousness, as well as the influence of far-right political parties and extremist groups, which have gained a concerning foothold in the UK and internationally. [89]

Sexual grooming

Sadie Robinson of the Socialist Worker wrote:

Sexual abuse and sexist attitudes aren’t the preserve of Asian men. The press described the abusers in Newcastle as an “Asian sex gang,” “Asian sex ring” and “Asian grooming gang”. The usual calls for Asian people to stamp out abuse—with the implication that they are otherwise responsible for it—followed. In April three white brothers, one white woman and an Asian man were jailed for child sex offences including rape. None of the press described the Sheffield abusers as a “Mostly White Rape Gang”. White people were not called upon to root out abuse in their “communities”. Comment pieces explaining why white people are particularly sexist did not follow. [90]

Street crime

Young men, particularly young black men, are commonly stereotyped as engaging in criminal behaviour. [91] Past research shows that the media misrepresents the picture of crime and that stories involving violent and sexual offences are over-reported beyond the official statistics. [92] For example, the concerns over mugging in the 1970s were focused on young African-Caribbean men, and the inner city riots of the 1980s were blamed on young black people. [93]

In December 2009 Rod Liddle in The Spectator referred to two black rappers, Brandon Jolie and Kingsley Ogundele, who had plotted to kill Jolie's 15-year-old pregnant girlfriend, as "human filth" and said the incident was not an anomaly. Liddle continued:

The overwhelming majority of street crime, knife crime, gun crime, robbery and crimes of sexual violence in London is carried out by young men from the African-Caribbean community. Of course, in return, we have rap music, goat curry and a far more vibrant and diverse understanding of cultures which were once alien to us. For which, many thanks. [94]

Liddle was accused of racism after his comments, to which he replied that his comments were not racism but a discussion of multiculturalism. [95] [96] In March 2010, the Press Complaints Commission upheld a complaint against Liddle, since "the magazine had not been able to demonstrate that the 'overwhelming majority' of crime in all of the stated categories had been carried out by members of the African-Caribbean community". [97] After the publication of the crime figures in June 2010, The Sunday Telegraph claimed that Liddle was "largely right on some of his claims", but "that he was probably wrong on his claims about knife crimes and violent sex crimes". [83]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Responsibility for this moved from the Home Office to the Ministry of Justice following changes in May 2007. [3]

References

  1. ↑ Criminal Justice Act 1991 – Section 95. legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
  2. ↑ Marsh and Melville, p. 166.
  3. ↑ Criminal Justice Act 1991 – Section 95. Home Office. Retrieved 27 September 2010. Archived by the Internet Archive on 9 June 2007.
  4. ↑ "Statistics on Ethnicity and the Criminal Justice System 2022" (PDF). Ministry of Justice. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
  5. ↑ "Ethnicity facts and figures: Stop and search". service.gov.uk. Home Office. 3 July 2024. Retrieved 19 July 2024.
  6. ↑ "Ethnicity facts and figure: Arrests". service.gov.uk. Home Office. 3 July 2024. Retrieved 19 July 2024.
  7. 1 2 "Joint Committee On Human Rights Twenty-Sixth Report". 2006. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  8. ↑ Guilbert, Kieran (19 July 2018). "Number of modern slaves estimated 'hidden' in UK rises tenfold to 136,000". Reuters. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  9. ↑ "Nearly 7,000 potential victims of slavery and trafficking reported in 2018". www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  10. ↑ "National referral mechanism guidance: adult (England and Wales)". GOV.UK. 26 January 2022. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  11. 1 2 "2021 UK Annual Report on Modern Slavery (accessible version)". GOV.UK. 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  12. 1 2 "2020 National Strategic Assessment (NSA) of Serious and Organised Crime" . Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  13. ↑ Shelley, Louise, ed. (2010), "Human Trafficking in Eurasia and Eastern Europe" , Human Trafficking: A Global Perspective, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 174–200, doi:10.1017/CBO9780511760433.010, ISBN   978-0-521-11381-6 , retrieved 29 March 2022
  14. ↑ "Understanding who commits hate crime and why they do it" (PDF). Retrieved 1 April 2022.
  15. ↑ "Causes and motivations of hate crime" (PDF). 2016. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
  16. ↑ "Stephen Lawrence Day: Who was he and what happened to him? – CBBC Newsround". 22 April 2021. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
  17. 1 2 "Hate crime, England and Wales, 2020 to 2021". GOV.UK. 2022. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
  18. ↑ Grierson, Jamie (13 May 2020). "Anti-Asian hate crimes up 21% in UK during coronavirus crisis". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
  19. ↑ Morris, James (28 July 2020). "'It's vicious': What it's like living through the UK's coronavirus racism". sports.yahoo.com. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
  20. 1 2 "Hate crime, England and Wales, 2021 to 2022". GOV.UK. Retrieved 9 December 2022.
  21. ↑ "Hate crime, England and Wales, 2023 to 2024". GOV.UK. Retrieved 24 July 2025.
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 Casey, Louise (16 June 2025). "National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse". GOV.UK. Retrieved 16 June 2025.
  23. ↑ "Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation Characteristics of Offending" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 12 February 2023.
  24. 1 2 "EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CEOP thematic assessment" (PDF). ceop.police.uk. June 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 May 2014. Retrieved 23 March 2014. Localized grooming is a form of sexual exploitation – previously referred to as 'on street grooming' in the media – where children have been groomed and sexually exploited by an offender, having initially met in a location outside their home. This location is usually in public, such as a park, cinema, on the street or at a friend's house. Offenders often act together, establishing a relationship with a child or children before sexually exploiting them. Some victims of 'street grooming' may believe that the offender is an older 'boyfriend'; these victims introduce their peers to the offender group who might then go on to be sexually exploited as well. Abuse may occur at several locations within a region and on several occasions. 'Localised grooming' was the term used by CEOP in the intelligence requests issued to police forces and other service agencies to define the data we wished to receive.
  25. ↑ Mooney, Jaime-Lee; Ost, Suzanne (2013). "Group Localised Grooming: What Is It and What Challenges Does It Pose for Society and Law". Child and Family Law Quarterly. 25 (4): 425. Archived from the original on 27 November 2022. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  26. ↑ Home Affairs Committee (10 June 2013). Child sexual exploitation and the response to localized grooming. Second Report of Session 2013–14, Vol. 1 (PDF). London: The Stationery Office Limited. p. 5. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 September 2017. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  27. ↑ "Asian rape allegations". Channel 4 News. Archived from the original on 20 June 2010.
  28. ↑ "independent.co.uk: "'They like us naive': How teenage girls are groomed for a life of prostitution by UK gangs" 31 Jan 2010". The Independent. 31 January 2010. Archived from the original on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  29. ↑ "Child sexual abuse ring in Halifax: 25 men charged - police reaction". Halifax Courier. 9 February 2015. Archived from the original on 7 April 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2018. police say is the largest child sexual exploitation (CSE) investigation in the country - bigger than high profile cases in Rochdale and Rotherham
  30. ↑ "Last two men sentenced in Calderdale's biggest child sex abuse case". Halifax Courier. 24 June 2016. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2018. Sentences imposed on the sexual offenders now total more than 175 years and an 18th man convicted only of supplying the girl with cannabis was also jailed for 10 months.
  31. ↑ "Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation Characteristics of Offending | December 2020" (PDF). assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 12 February 2023. Law enforcement data can be particularly vulnerable to bias, in terms of those cases that come to the attention of the authorities [...] This can also lead to greater attention being paid to certain types of offenders, making that data more readily identified and recorded. [...] Police collected data on ethnicity uses broad categories and requires the police to assign an ethnicity rather than it being self-reported by offenders. Data is therefore not always accurate; Berelowitz et al. (2012) observed cases of offenders being initially classed as 'Asian' but actually coming from other backgrounds, such as White British or Afghan. [...] In 2013 CEOP undertook a second piece of work in this space. Data was requested from all police forces in England and Wales on contact CSA, and responses were received from 31. Of the 52 groups where data provided was useable, half of the groups consisted of all Asian offenders, 11 were all White offenders, 4 were all Black, and 2 were exclusively Arab. There were nine groups where offenders came from a mix of ethnic backgrounds. Looking at the offenders across all groups, of the 306 offenders 75% were Asian. However, as with CEOP (2011) these figures should be treated with caution due to the amount of missing data.
  32. ↑ Barnes, Tom (10 December 2017). "British-Pakistani researchers say grooming gangs are 84% Asian". The Independent . Archived from the original on 18 March 2021. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
  33. ↑ Cockbain, Ella; Tufail, Waqas (2020). "Failing victims, fuelling hate: Challenging the harms of the 'Muslim grooming gangs' narrative". Race & Class. 61 (3): 3–32. doi:10.1177/0306396819895727. S2CID   214197388. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  34. ↑ Malik, Kenan (11 November 2018). "We're told 84% of grooming gangs are Asian. But where's the evidence?". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 25 December 2020. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
  35. ↑ "Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation Characteristics of Offending | December 2020" (PDF). assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 12 February 2023. Beyond specific high-profile cases, the academic literature highlights significant limitations to what can be said about links between ethnicity and this form of offending. Research has found that group-based CSE offenders are most commonly White. Some studies suggest an over-representation of Black and Asian offenders relative to the demographics of national populations. However, it is not possible to conclude that this is representative of all group-based CSE offending. This is due to issues such as data quality problems, the way the samples were selected in studies, and the potential for bias and inaccuracies in the way that ethnicity data is collected ... Based on the existing evidence, and our understanding of the flaws in the existing data, it seems most likely that the ethnicity of group-based CSE offenders is in line with CSA [child sexual abuse] more generally and with the general population, with the majority of offenders being White.
  36. ↑ Lizzie Dearden (15 December 2020). Grooming gangs come from 'diverse backgrounds, says Home Office as review finally published . The Independent. Archived Version . Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  37. 1 2 Grierson, Jamie (15 December 2020). "Most child sexual abuse gangs made up of white men, Home Office report says". The Guardian . ISSN   0261-3077. Archived from the original on 1 April 2021. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
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  44. ↑ "Statistics on Ethnicity and Crime". tutor2u. 18 July 2018. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
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  46. ↑ "Black community in crime 'crisis'". BBC News. 15 June 2007. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
  47. ↑ "Charities welcome report on youth". BBC News. 15 June 2007. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
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  49. ↑ Bowling, Ben; Phillips, Coretta (2007). "Disproportionate and Discriminatory: Reviewing the Evidence on Police Stop and Search". Modern Law Review. 70 (6): 936–961. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2230.2007.00671.x. S2CID   23235460.
  50. ↑ Britton, Nadia Joanne. Student Handbook of Criminal Justice and Criminology. p. 83.
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  52. ↑ C. Phillips and D. Brown, Entry into the Criminal Justice System: a Survey of Police Arrests and Their Outcomes. Home Office Research Study 185 (London: Home Office, 1998) 173
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  57. ↑ Stop and Search Open Data Tables: Police Powers and Procedures: England and Wales – Year Ending March 2017 (Home Office, London, 2017)
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  59. 1 2 Townsend, Mark (17 October 2010). "Black people are 26 times more likely than whites to face stop and search". The Observer. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
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  61. 1 2 3 Vaughan, Henry (13 November 2020). "Met Commissioner admits force 'not free of discrimination, racism or bias'". belfasttelegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 5 April 2022.
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  67. ↑ Hales, Jon; Nevill, Camilla; Pudney, Steve; Tipping, Sarah (November 2009). "Longitudinal analysis of the Offending, Crime and Justice Survey 2003–06" (PDF). Research Report. 19. London: Home Office: 23. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 November 2010. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
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  72. ↑ Alotaibi, Faisal Abdullah. "Racial Profiling as a counter-terrorism tool: To what extent has racial profiling contributed to the security of the United Kingdom since the London bombing of 7 June 2005". Public Policy and Administration Research. 6 (6): 106–112.
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  74. 1 2 Dan Sabbagh, Rajeev Syal (9 December 2021). "Record number of children in Britain arrested over terror offences". TheGuardian.com . Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  75. 1 2 3 4 5 Grahame Allen, Megan Hardin (14 October 2021). "Terrorism in Great Britain the statistics" (PDF). Retrieved 27 March 2022.
  76. ↑ "Right-wing extremism is UK's fastest growing threat, says top counter-terror cop". Sky News.
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  79. ↑ "Children forming 'new generation of extremists' in UK, Cressida Dick warns". Independent.co.uk . 13 September 2021.
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  82. ↑ Young Black People and the Criminal Justice System, p. 12.
  83. 1 2 3 Alderson, Andrew. "Violent inner-city crime, the figures, and a question of race". The Daily Telegraph . 26 June 2010. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
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  86. ↑ "Crimes by racial groups in 2022". Metropolitan Police. Retrieved 16 January 2025.
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  88. ↑ Paige, Jonathan (24 July 2013). "Media coverage of forced labour: exposing Britain's hidden crime". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  89. ↑ Rania, Hamad (5 December 2019). "Working with people who commit hate crime". Iriss. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
  90. ↑ Robinson, Sadie (10 August 2017). "Sexist attitudes behind police failings in Newcastle abuse case" . Retrieved 28 March 2022.
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  92. ↑ Jewkes, Yvonne  [ sv ]. However, many more left leaning media outlets have tried to overbalance this by focusing on "racially motivated" crimes by whites. Indeed, the BBC in particular tends only to mention race when a non-white person has been the victim of a crime by a white. Racist remarks now receive more press attention than most murders. Student Handbook of Criminal Justice and Criminology. p. 68.
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