Abstract
Within a global pandemic and increased questioning of police utility and legitimacy around racism and violence against women and girls (VAWG), this article examines the gap between police policy and practices on hate crime. Based on research with police forces in Canada and the UK, it demonstrates how police officers view hate crime through a policing rather than victim-centred mandate. Without reframing hate crime as a public and community safety issue, hate crime policies and procedures designed to ‘take hate crime seriously’ are unlikely to do just that. Real ‘commitment’ is needed to tackle hate crime as part of the police mandate and role – otherwise hate crime policies remain a largely tick-box exercise.
Highlights
In the United Kingdom and Canada, new questions are being asked about how police fulfill their mandate to ensure public safety and realize commitments to fair, equitable and bias free policing
Nottinghamshire Police’s misogyny hate crime policy did not change the law, but instead encouraged the police to record offences and incidents against women through this lens; 174 cases were reported in the first two years; several other forces implemented a variant of the policy
Re-framing hate crime response Our research indicates that the application of hate crime laws and policies can be circumvented through dismissive labelling practices
Summary
In the United Kingdom and Canada, new questions are being asked about how police fulfill their mandate to ensure public safety and realize commitments to fair, equitable and bias free policing. Institutional officers, victims of hate crime, and various community groups experience these effects in ways that (re)shape relationships between police and the public.
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