Abstract
This chapter critically engages with statutory and civil responses to the recording and reporting of ‘race’ hate in the Republic of Ireland. As will be argued below, statutory policies, practices and cultural responses to the recording of ‘race’ hate, focusing here in particular on An Garda Síochána (the Irish police force), are problematic in terms of their consistency and lack of any real substance. The impact that these responses have on those who are the targets of ‘race’ hate when it comes to reporting their experiences is made evident in the low numbers of officially reported incidents made to An Garda Síochána and the related lack of trust demonstrated in the research discussed below. The impact that ineffective recording practices and low reporting have is an inability of a state to police ‘race’ hate, in that it cannot form efficacious, evidence-based policies that could enable a meaningful challenge to racism.
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Notes
- 1.
For a detailed interrogation on the problematic character of the Irish legislative landscape vis-à-vis hate crime legislation, as well as proposals for change, see Schweppe and Haynes 2015).
- 2.
According to the College of Policing (UK) Hate Crime Operational Guidance (2014, p. 5) ‘For recording purposes, the perception of the victim, or any other person,…is the defining factor in determining whether an incident is a hate incident, or in recognising the hostility element of a hate crime. The victim does not have to justify or provide evidence of their belief, and police officers or staff should not directly challenge this perception. Evidence of the hostility is not required for an incident or crime to be recorded as a hate crime or hate incident.’
- 3.
Ostensibly, the use of the Macpherson definition which allows for multiple persons (victim, witness, police officer) to report a crime/incident as racist is incredibly useful as it offsets the potential for ‘institutional bias’ (Haynes et al. 2015) and or racism ‘unwitting’ (Macpherson 1999, pp. 46, 28 i–vii) or otherwise within the police; taking as it does the sole ownership of classification out of the hands of the attending police officer.
- 4.
At time of writing, the iReport.ie mechanism is entering into its second phase and the manner in which reports are compiled is currently undergoing a reorganisation in order to ensure greater comparability with data gathered by An Garda Síochána among others (ENAR Ireland 2015a).
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Carr, J. (2017). Recording and Reporting Racist Hate Crime: Police and Civil Society Responses. In: Haynes, A., Schweppe, J., Taylor, S. (eds) Critical Perspectives on Hate Crime. Palgrave Hate Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52667-0_20
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