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Easy News: Increase in disability hate crimes reported to the police

This Easy News story is about the increase in the number of disability hate crimes reported to the police. It was translated by Ben.

Easy News: Increase in disability hate crimes reported to the police

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    1. More than 9,200 disability hate crimes were reported to English and Welsh police forces between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021 – this is roughly around 25 hate crimes reported every day.

    2. A hate crime is when a person is deliberately targeted because of something about them. For example their race, religion, a disability or their sexuality.

    3. Some of the hate crimes were violent and some also involved weapons.

    4. Reported online disability hate crimes also increased a lot in this time. This could be because more people spent time at home and online because of the lockdown.

    5. Not many of the disability hate crimes were sent to the Crown Prosecution Service, also known as the CPS. The CPS is responsible for prosecution. This is when legal action is taken in court against a person accused of a crime.

    6. Low prosecution rates could be linked to why there was also a rise in repeat offenders. A repeat offender is a person who commits the same crime more than once.

    7. The increase in the number of reported hate crimes could be a result of better ways for people to report hate crimes they see or experience.

    8. But even if this is the case, there is still a high number of disability hate crimes happening which is very worrying.

    9. Leonard Cheshire and United Response, two charities, found the reported hate crime figures by making freedom of information requests. This is when you can ask to see recorded information held by public authorities like the government or the police.

    10. The two charities believe that many people don’t report hate crimes to the police, because they won’t be taken seriously.

    11. The charities said they’d heard people say that many police officers do not have a good understanding of disability.

    12. They also said that every police force should have a specialist disability liaison officer. This is a person who understands disabilities and makes it easier for people with disabilities to talk to the police.

    13. Both the police and the CPS have said that disability hate crime is a horrible problem and that they want to work to make things better.

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