Hate Crime in Scotland, 2019-20

A report on Hate Crime in Scotland 2019-20 was published today. This brings together figures on race crime, and on crime motivated by prejudice related to religion, disability, sexual orientation and transgender identity.

The main findings are

• There has been an increase in the number of charges reported in 2019-20 compared to 2018-19 for all categories of hate crime.

• Racial crime remains the most commonly reported hate crime. In total 3,038 charges relating to race crime were reported in 2019-20, an increase of 4 percent compared to 2018-19. Although the number of charges has increased in 2019-20, it is still the second lowest annual figure since consistent figures became available in 2003-04.

• Sexual orientation aggravated crime is the second most commonly reported type of hate crime. The number of charges reported increased by 24 percent in 2019-20 to 1,486. With the exception of 2014-15, there have been year on year increases in charges reported since the legislation introducing this aggravation came into force in 2010.

• There were 660 religiously aggravated charges reported in 2019-20, an increase of 24 percent compared to 2018-19. Direct comparisons are not possible with earlier years, but the number of charges reported with a religious aggravation in 2019-20 appears to be at around the same level as the number of charges containing a religious element in 2015-16, but lower than the level in 2016-17.
• The number of disability aggravated charges increased by 29 percent to 387 in 2019-20.
• There were 41 charges reported in 2019-20 with an aggravation of transgender identity, compared to 40 in 2018-19.