Racial crime in Rural Areas

Limited information exists on Racial Crime in rural areas.

The report ‘Challenging Racism in the Rural Idyll’ published in Aug 1999 is a summary of the experiences of a Rural Race Equality Project in South West England.

The West Region of the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux initiated the project with support from The Countryside Agency.

Its key aims were;

• To identify black and minority ethnic groups and assess what they expect from advice services,

• To improve accessibility and responsiveness of services to the target group,

• To work with voluntary and statutory agencies in order to improve services

Key recommendations;

• An important feature of any Race Equality work in rural settings must be focussed on raising awareness that Black and Minority Ethnic people live and work in rural areas and may experience the effects of a mixture of both institutional and individual racism.

• Training programmes on Race Equality issues need to be developed by all agencies.

• Organisations’ Corporate and Community Plans should reflect the needs of Black and Minority Ethnic people

Further details from NACAB West Region tel ;01392 425517.

• The Crime and Disorder Act created new offences, including racially aggravated assaults, criminal damage, public order offences and harassment. www.homeoffice.gov.uk/cdact/racagoff.htm. Police forces began recording these offences separately in April 1999.

The Government has produced an Action Plan in response to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, which sets out a comprehensive programme to improve the way racist incidents are handled by agencies. www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ppd/oppu/slawr.htm

As a consequence, a Code of Practice on Reporting & Recording Racist Incidents was produced in April 2000. It provides guidelines for local agencies to establish effective procedures for the reporting & recording of racist incidents and suggested action to help the victims of racism and to deal with perpetrators appropriately www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ppd/oppu/coderi.htm

Guidance for the police on the investigation of racist incidents is given in the ACPO Action Guide to Identifying & Combating Hate Crime (Breaking the Power of Fear & Hate) issued in Sept. 2000.

In July 1999 a joint guidance ‘School Inclusion: Pupil Support’ was issued by the Dept. Education & Employment, the Social Exclusion Unit , Dept. Health & the Home Office was issued to schools. This guidance makes clear that all schools’ behaviour policies should cover racial harassment and make clear how staff and pupils should deal with it. The guidance also says that close co-operation with the local police can be a constructive way to reduce anti-social behaviour and prevent offending. (www.dfee.gov.uk)

The Policy Action Team 8 Report on Anti-Social Behaviour has made a number of recommendations on combating racial incidents. They include Crime & Disorder Partnerships establishing a ‘zero tolerance’ policy for racist actions by adopting the Macpherson Inquiry’s definition of a racist incident and including clear statements of intent to tackle racism in crime & disorder strategies and neighbourhood agreements; and improving reporting. The Government has accepted these. (http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/antisocialbehaviour1.htm)

Further information, including contact details & good practice case studies will be available from around Sept. 2000 on www.RaceActionNet.co.uk.

Further details are available from Carwyn Gravell at Lemos&Crane, 20 Pond Square, Highgate, London N6 6BA. He can be telephoned on 020 8348 8263 or e-mailed on carwyn@lemos.demon.co.uk.