Police-reported
hate crimes
Monday,
June 14, 2010
2008
Police
services in Canada reported 1,036 hate crimes in 2008, up
35% from 2007. Just over half (55%) were motivated by race
or ethnicity, 26% by religion and 16% by sexual orientation.
All
three major categories of hate crime increased in 2008.
The largest increase was among those motivated by sexual
orientation, which more than doubled from 2007 to 2008.
Hate crimes motivated by religion increased 53%, while those
motivated by race or ethnicity increased to a lesser extent,
up 15%.
Violent
crimes, mainly assaults and uttering threats, accounted
for 42% of all hate crimes. Mischief offences such as vandalism
to property accounted for 47%, while other non-violent offences
comprised the remaining 11%.
Hate
crimes motivated by sexual orientation were the most violent
in nature. In 2008, 75% of those motivated by sexual orientation
were violent compared with 38% of racially-motivated incidents
and 25% of religiously-motivated incidents.
Among
violent incidents motivated by sexual orientation, 85% of
the victims were male.
Note
to readers
Police-reported
hate crimes refer to criminal incidents that, upon investigation
by police, are determined to have been motivated by hate
towards an identifiable group. The incident may target race,
colour, national or ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation,
language, sex, age, mental or physical disability, or other
factors such as profession or political beliefs.
Data
on the incidence of police-reported hate crime became available
in 2006 from police services representing 88% of the population.
Data for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are available
only for British Columbia.
The
number of hate crimes presented in this release likely undercounts
the true extent of hate crime in Canada, as not all crimes
are reported to police. Other
research has shown that a victim's decision to report a
hate-motivated crime to police may be influenced by various
factors. These include: the importance of the incident;
police sensitivity to the issue; existence of specialized
hate crime units; fear of retaliation and feelings of humiliation;
language or cultural barriers; and, the accessibility of
victim services in the community.
Blacks
most commonly targeted racial group
Among
the hate crimes motivated by race or ethnicity, almost 4
in 10 were committed against Blacks. Police reported 205
hate crimes against Blacks in 2008, up 30% over 2007, but
still lower than the 2006 total of 238.
South
Asians, which includes East Indians and Pakistanis, were
the next most commonly targeted group, accounting for 12%
of hate crime incidents motivated by race or ethnicity.
Incidents targeting South Asians increased by 21% in 2008.
Jewish
faith most commonly targeted religion
As
in previous years, about two-thirds of religiously-motivated
hate crimes were committed against the Jewish faith. There
were 165 hate crimes targeting the Jewish faith in 2008,
up 42%.
Police
reported 30 hate crimes against the Catholic faith, double
the total in 2007. The 26 incidents against the Muslim faith
represented a slight drop from 2007.
Highest
rates in Vancouver and Hamilton
Vancouver
and Hamilton reported the highest rates (6.3 hate crimes
per 100,000 population) among Canada's 10 largest census
metropolitan areas (CMAs). Police reported 143 hate crimes
in Vancouver in 2008, nearly double the total from the previous
year.
There
were 271 hate crimes reported in the CMA of Toronto. It
ranked near the middle of the 10 largest CMAs with a rate
of 5.4 hate crimes per 100,000 population. Montréal,
where police reported 38 hate crimes in 2008, had the lowest
rate (1.0).
The
number of hate crimes reported by police in any given area
may be influenced by the presence or absence of specialized
hate crime units or initiatives.
Definitions,
data sources and methods: survey numbers, including related
surveys, 3302 and 4504.
The
Juristat article "Police-reported hate crime
in Canada," 2008, Vol. 30, no. 2 (85-002-X, free),
is now available. From the Key resource module
of our website under Publications, choose All subjects,
then Crime and Justice, and Juristat.
Data
for 2008 on hate-motivated crime, street gang crime and
cyber crime are available for a sub-set of police services
across Canada reporting to the newest version of the Uniform
Crime Reporting Survey (UCR2.2).
These
new data elements were developed by Statistics Canada with
the financial assistance of Citizenship and Immigration
Canada.
Data
are available upon request only.
For
more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods
or data quality of this release, contact Information and
Client Services (toll-free 1-800-387-2231; 613-951-9023),
Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics.
Hate
crimes reported by police, by type of motivation
| Type of motivation |
2007r |
2008 |
2007 to 2008 |
| |
number |
%1 |
number |
%1 |
% change in number |
| Race or ethnicity |
|
|
|
|
|
| Black |
158 |
33.5 |
205 |
37.3 |
30 |
| South Asian |
53 |
11.2 |
64 |
11.7 |
21 |
| East and Southeast Asian |
57 |
12.1 |
44 |
8.0 |
-23 |
| Arab or West Asian |
34 |
7.2 |
37 |
6.7 |
9 |
| Caucasian |
50 |
10.6 |
22 |
4.0 |
-56 |
| Aboriginal² |
14 |
3.0 |
20 |
3.6 |
43 |
| Multiple races or ethnicities |
75 |
15.9 |
115 |
20.9 |
53 |
| Other |
31 |
6.6 |
42 |
7.7 |
35 |
| Unknown |
18 |
... |
14 |
... |
-22 |
| Total |
490 |
100.0 |
563 |
100.0 |
15 |
| Religion |
|
|
|
|
|
| Jewish |
116 |
68.6 |
165 |
64.2 |
42 |
| Catholic |
15 |
8.9 |
30 |
11.7 |
100 |
| Muslim (Islam) |
29 |
17.2 |
26 |
10.1 |
-10 |
| Other |
9 |
5.3 |
36 |
14.0 |
300 |
| Unknown |
4 |
... |
8 |
... |
100 |
| Total |
173 |
100.0 |
265 |
100.0 |
53 |
| Sexual orientation |
71 |
... |
159 |
... |
124 |
| Other motivation |
14 |
... |
33 |
... |
136 |
| Unknown motivation |
17 |
... |
16 |
... |
-6 |
| Total |
765 |
... |
1,036 |
... |
35 |
r revised
...not applicable
1.Percentages exclude unknowns.
2.The number of hate crimes against Aboriginals may be under-reported
due to the unavailability of data from police services in
the territories and the northern part of the Prairie provinces
where the proportion of the Aboriginal population is highest.
