Racial Violence and Harassment
Satnam Virdee
Any useful discussion of how racial violence and harassment should be tackled needs to be based on a thorough understanding of the nature and scale of the problem. The official figures on the extent of racial violence and harassment in Britain are based on police statistics and the British Crime Survey. This book offers a critical evaluation and assessment of these sources, to see if the problem has, as some claim, increased. The report reviews a number of small-scale studies in local areas where racial violence and harassment is known to be a problem. Detailed questioning about the experience of racial violence and harassment - particularly 'low-level' harassment - among a sample of African Caribbean and South Asian respondents then reveals: where such incidents take place; who the perpetrators are; what, if anything, the people subject to such violence and harassment try to do about it; and the extent to which people's lives are affected, beyond the actual harassment that takes place.
The report concludes with a discussion of the key issues involved in addressing the problem more effectively.
Paperback ISBN 0 85374 647 8
1995 96 pages 229 x 145mm
Report number 796
Contents:
1 Introduction
Objectives of the study
Background to the problem
Overview of this report
2 Racial violence and harassment
in Britain: Assessing the evidence
Introduction
The police and racial violence and harassment
The scale of the problem: racial incidents reported to the police
The British Crime Survey (BCS): a more accurate estimate of the problem?
Problems associated with victimisation surveys
'Special' surveys on racial violence and harassment
Summary
3 The nature of racial violence
and harassment: Some findings from a qualitative study
Introduction
The overall prevalence of racial violence and harassment
Racial abuse and threatening behaviour
Racial attacks
Racially motivated damage to property
The non-reporting of incidents of racial violence and harassment to the police
Summary
4 The effect of racial harassment
on people's lifestyle
Introduction
Adapting the way you lead your life because of the fear of being racially
harassed
Summary
5 Summary and conclusions
Summary of findings
Policy implications
References