Racist Incidents Recorded by the Police in Scotland, 2011-12

1. Introduction

1.1 This bulletin is part of a series of bulletins produced by the Scottish Government on the criminal justice system. It presents statistics on racist incidents recorded and cleared up by the eight Scottish police forces in 2011-12. Any racist incident reported to the police may involve one or more victims, one or more perpetrators, and result in one or more crimes or offences being recorded.

1.2 The definition of a racist incident, as given by Sir William MacPherson in his report on the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, is "any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person".

1.3 The number of racist incidents recorded by the police in Scotland has increased for the first time in five years, with 5,389 racist incidents recorded in 2011-12, 10% higher than the 4,911 incidents recorded in 2010-11.

Chart 1 Racist incidents recorded by the police in Scotland, 2004-05 to 2011-12