Investigated or ignored? An analysis of race-related deaths since the Macpherson Report

Abstract

Since the publication of the Macpherson Report in February 1999, there have been at least ninety-three deaths with a known or suspected racial element in the UK. Of these, 97 per cent of the victims were from BME communities (including those from Gypsy or Traveller communities and European migrant workers). Particular groups of BME people are at risk – asylum seekers, new migrants, students and those working in the night-time economy. In only a quarter of the cases was the allegation of racism accepted and prosecuted as such, with racial motivation factored into sentencing. The over-strict interpretation of the legal provisions for racial motivation may be inhibiting the (racial) charging of perpetrators and in fact removing the racial context of a crime from the court room. It also appears that if authorities, including the police, had, on occasion, intervened earlier, against persistent harassment and low-level abuse, some deaths might have been prevented.