DESI FORUM

IS THERE A HESITANCY IN REPORTING HATE CRIMES?

Over 90 per cent of hate-motivated crimes and incidents are unreported for reasons including fear of police, distrust in law enforcement and judicial systems, dismissal by police; as well as other barriers to reporting including language, cultural, socioeconomic and accessibility barriers. Image credit: LUCAS METZ on Unsplash.

The Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA) published the report for its Hate Crime Reporting Project. 

“National data shows an increase of over 70 per cent of hate-motivated crimes and incidents reported to Canadian police in the last two years,” said Samya Hasan, executive director of CASSA. “Still, over 90 per cent of hate activity and incidents are unreported for reasons including fear of police, distrust in law enforcement and judicial systems, dismissal by police; as well as other barriers to reporting including language, cultural, socioeconomic, and accessibility barriers. This project aimed to explore the differences in perceptions of what hate-motivated crimes and incidents are between the police and communities, the best ways to report them, and how to approach investigations.”

CASSA partnered with the Toronto Police Service, Peel Regional Police, York Regional Police, and Ottawa Police Service over the course of two years with the hope of establishing a consistent hate-motivated crime reporting approach to boost reporting rates, as well as increase community awareness for identifying hate-motivated crimes and hate incidents and safe methods of reporting them. 

The focus of its work is on marginalized, underprivileged, and disenfranchised segments of the South Asian communities including youth, women, seniors, disabled, poverty-stricken, and LGBTQ+ groups.

Excerpts from the report:

Hate statistics in Canada vary due to a number of reasons including a lack of uniform definitions for hate-motivated crimes, hate incidents, and identifiable groups, as well as unstandardized reporting and documentation across jurisdictions, among others. Police-reported hate-motivated crimes only represent a small proportion of hate-motivated crimes and incidents that occur across the country. In 2019, Canadian law enforcement reported 1,951 hate-motivated crimes – under 1 per cent of the 223,000 self-reported hate-motivated crimes across the country (Canadian Anti-Hate Network). With the onset of the pandemic in 2020, there was:

36% increase in the number of police-reported hate-motivated crimes, followed by a 27 per cent increase into 2021.

89% said hate incidents are an important issue in their community.

84% experienced a hate crime or incident, primarily at stores (41%), at or near work (26%), school (14%), places of worship, public transportation, and at or near their homes.

89% witnessed/have been a bystander of a hate crime or incident primarily at school (42%), at or near work (25%) and stores (10%). 

9%  disagree and strongly disagree that police are properly trained to respond to hate incidents, while 13% are neutral.

Most victims felt discouraged in accessing justice as their experience of hate activity is often not considered a hate crime or hate incident in the reporting or prosecution process, or they do not see reporting as a viable option, which they indicated as a systemic failure in communications from the police to their communities.

“We didn’t bother to go to the police because maybe we do not have enough evidence. It’s her word against ours.”

“Would be hesitant to report (as it is) difficult to provide actual evidence and (I) would not be taken seriously.”

“Through our research and engagement work, we identified barriers to reporting hate-motivated crimes and incidents for community members, and identified recommendations to remove these barriers. We also focused on increasing community awareness for identifying hate-motivated crimes and hate incidents and safe methods of reporting them. The project also involved providing police hate crime units with training and recommendations on how to work with racialized communities to report and address hate-motivated crimes and incidents while simultaneously building trust-based relationships with communities.”

LEARNINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Communication by the police (in investigation and reporting) needs to be amplified.

• Reporting methods are insufficient, not well-publicized, as well as inaccessible.

• Police services need to better engage with communities to increase awareness of the nature of hate-motivated crimes and reporting processes.

A collective effort from police services and community organizations is needed. The report recommended police services host ongoing community forums on hate-motivated crimes to talk about emerging trends in hate activity and share up-to-date, accurate information about hate incidents with community members.

Although police services are currently engaging with community members, increased efforts should be dedicated to public education on staying safe relating to hate activity online and in-person, amplifying existing reporting methods facilitated by the police service, building capacity for local third-party organizations, as well as promoting mental health and victims support services available in each of the four regions of focus.

Communities, local organizations, police services and other law enforcement bodies, as well as policy-makers, will all benefit from enhanced race-based disaggregated data collection, analysis and reporting pertaining to hate crime motivational factors.

This report, and other resources are available at at www.cassa.on.ca.