Hate crimes on the wane

The number of hate crimes reported to the police in 2018 decreased by 22 per cent from that in the previous year, says a study report of the Police University College.

Last year, a total of 910 reports of offences classified as suspected hate crimes were recorded. The number decreased to the level of the period that preceded the growth spike in 2015, said a police press release on Monday.

Hate crimes were classified according to their motives in the Police University College’s research. As before, the majority of the hate crime reports in 2018 included features related to ethnic or national background. Assault was the most common type of crime.

The number of suspected hate crimes has been monitored by the Police University College since 2008 to date.

Suspected crimes related to sexual orientation were the only type of hate motives to increase.

Last year, the police recorded 634 reports of suspected hate crimes related to ethnic or national background, which is 22 per cent less than that in 2017.

In these cases, assault was the most common type of crime. Of the reports of offence related to ethnic or national background, 12 per cent targeted a person of Roma background. In these reports, the most common type of crime was defamation.

Suspected hate crimes related to religion or belief decreased by 34 per cent compared to that in the year before. The police recorded 155 reports of offence for these types of hate crimes, and approximately one third of them targeted Islam or Muslims.

The only type of hate crime reports that increased last year was the one related to sexual orientation. There were a total of 61 such reports made, which is 27 per cent more than that in 2017.

People’s willingness to report crimes and the police’s investment may affect the number of hate crimes.

In addition to the committed crimes, the number of police reports for hate crimes may have been affected by people’s willingness to report suspected offences to the police.

According to the research, only approximately 20 per cent of hate crime victims report the crimes to the police or some other party.

The number of police reports on hate crimes may also be affected by the police’s investment in identifying and preventing hate crimes as well as acknowledging the hate crime motive in pre-trial investigations.

In 2017, the increase in hate crimes was explained in large part by the cases regarding ethnic agitation recorded by the Helsinki Police Department’s Hate Speech Investigation Team.

Now, the number of recorded reports of offence for these crimes decreased to less than one fourth of the number in the year before.

In addition, the police themselves marked with a hate crime code only approximately one fourth of the cases classified as hate crime in the 2018 report, whereas the year before, the number was 39 per cent. Thus, there continues to be a need for hate crime-related education and for investment in the identification and prevention of hate crimes.