3,126 reports were made in 2019 to the police, almost 200 more than the previous year.
The report suggests ‘the most commonly perceived religion recorded was Muslim’, with reports against other religions such as Christians and Jews also reported.
The figures were included in a report by Sheffield City Council, which also suggests “Increases are likely to have been driven by crime recording improvements by the police.”
“However, growing awareness of what constitutes a hate crime may also have impacted on the number of recorded offences.
“Short-term genuine rises in hate crime recorded have also been noticed following terrorist attacks and events such as the EU referendum in 2016.”
The report additionally states that there were over 100,000 hate crimes in England and Wales in 2018/19 – doubling from 2012/13.
Sarah Poolman, Chief Superintendent at South Yorkshire Police has said:
“Hate crime will not be tolerated across South Yorkshire – and as a force we are continuing to work hard to build confidence within our communities to report these crimes and support those who have been subjected to it.”
[Featured image: Unsplash]
