Racially Motivated Crime
Tackling the Invisible Problem? An Examination of the Provision of Services to Victims of Racial Harassment in Rural Suffolk
In July 2001 the Department of Criminology, University of Leicester was commissioned by Suffolk County Council and its partner organisations to undertake research into the effectiveness of services provided by local voluntary and statutory agencies to victims of racial harassment in the county's Rural Priority Area (RPA) and other rural and isolated areas of Suffolk.
Title: Tackling the Invisible Problem? An Examination of the Provision of Services to Victims of Racial Harassment in Rural Suffolk
Authors: Jon Garland and Neil Chakraborti with Parvinder Sandal
Series: Scarman Centre Rural Racism in Suffolk Research Project
Date published: June 2002
Number of pages: 80
The overall purpose of the research was to identify how mainstream services and community-based organisations respond to issues of rural racism within Suffolk. Questions asked by the study included:
what is the nature and extent of racism in the RPA
how effective are the local community service providers
how do perceptions of services affect take-up within minority ethnic communities
what motivates individuals to report/not report racial incidents
what are the relationships between established rural communities and minority ethnic communities.
The methodology included:
15 semi-structured interviews with victims of racial harassment
28 semi-structured interviews with key individuals/organisations that have responsibility for issues of racial harassment
facilitation of 2 focus groups and 3 interviews with members of rural Suffolk's established white communities
a postal questionnaire survey of minority ethnic groups living in the RPA which elicited 93 responses
Research Findings
This section of the report outlines and analyses the findings from the project. To begin with it describes relationships between established and minority ethnic communities in rural Suffolk, moving on to detail the nature and extent of racism suffered by minority ethnic communities in rural and isolated areas. The responses provided by local agencies to victims of racism are examined with a view to assessing their effectiveness and identifying areas for improvement.
None of the victims interviewed felt a true sense of belonging to their local community although many had made concerted efforts to be accepted.
Some families spoke of their disenchantment with established members of the community who tended to turn a blind eye to their victimisation.
Interviews with members of established white communities indicated that ‘narrow-mindedness’ and ‘a fondness for tradition’ are major factors behind people’s hostility to change in rural Suffolk.
Comments made by focus group participants revealed a wide range of racist attitudes and stereotypes that may be prevalent amongst established white communities unfamiliar with cultural difference.
Stereotyping, and equally importantly, the perception of stereotyping, is an important factor to be addressed if all communities are to have increased confidence in service providers. Several victims gave the impression that organisational and institutional prejudice remained a barrier to those in need of help.
Each of the families interviewed had encountered racism in a variety of forms and contexts. These experiences ranged from the more persistent ‘low-level’ examples of victimisation to less frequent but more serious incidents. Racism experienced by minority ethnic families living in rural areas should generally be regarded as an ongoing process rather than distinct, one-off events.
Racial harassment had been experienced by nearly 70 per cent of questionnaire respondents (65), and just over 11 per cent of those had experienced such harassment on a ‘daily’ basis (7).
The questionnaire survey found that the most common forms of racism were ‘low-level’ types such as verbal abuse or name-calling (81.5 per cent, 53 respondents), unnecessary staring (40.0 per cent, 26), and being avoided by people (23.1 per cent, 15). Nearly one-in-five (12) of those respondents who had suffered racism had experienced actual or attempted damage to property.
Approximately 60 per cent of questionnaire respondents (56) stated that they were ‘very concerned’ or ‘concerned’ about racial harassment.
The questionnaire findings revealed that only a third of those who had experienced an incident of racial harassment actually reported it to the police (21). Moreover, the findings suggested that those victims who had reported racist incidents to the police tended to have mixed views about the police response, with 50 per cent (11) being satisfied and 50 per cent (11) dissatisfied with the police response.
Factors behind victims’ satisfaction with the police response included: the appropriate investigation of the incident and taking time to visit victims.
Factors behind victims’ dissatisfaction with the police response included: unenthusiastic or unsympathetic reactions; the length of time taken to respond to victims; lack of investigation or follow up; lack of initial visit; complaints not being taken seriously and a prioritisation of form-filling (as opposed to communication).
Racist incidents comprise only a small proportion of the caseload for some service providers, and it was acknowledged that a considerable degree of slippage exists with regard to the reporting of rural racism which may lead some to underestimate the scale of the problem.
A belief common to a number of the agencies interviewed was that racial harassment did not constitute a significant problem in rural Suffolk as very few incidents were brought to their attention.
Most of the agency workers interviewed expressed a high level of satisfaction with the way in which they responded to incidents of racial harassment, citing the multi-agency approach as an important requirement in meeting victims’ needs.
Interviews highlighted that victims may prefer to deal with the situation themselves rather than enlist the help of ‘outsiders’. Furthermore, by reporting a racist incident some individuals may feel that they are prolonging their victimisation by drawing attention to themselves.
One problem mentioned by several interviewees relates to the lack of, or in some instances lack of knowledge about, translator services offered to victims of racial harassment, many of whom are likely to suffer from language difficulties.
During the course of their interviews, several victims stressed that no matter what the circumstance, they would be unwilling to contact, or indeed to be contacted by, any agency who could potentially offer support. Reasons for such a stance included a perception that voluntary and mainstream agencies consisted almost exclusively of white, middle-class workers who would be unable to fully understand the experiences and needs of minority ethnic communities.
The full report also gives 32 recommendations for improving services to the victims of racial harassment throughout rural Suffolk.
Getting a copy
The Executive Summary of 'Tackling the Invisible Problem? An Examination of the Provision of Services to Victims of Racial Harassment in Rural Suffolk' is available here.
For further information regarding the authors' extensive work on rural racism in Britain, then please contact them at the Department of Criminology.Date modified: 21 November 2003
Review date: February 2004
Originator: Crime Reduction College Information Team
Last update: Tuesday, August 19, 2008