Hate Crime Symposium

Hate Crime: Policy & Practice

11th SeptemberHendon Campus, Middlesex University

Theo Gavrielides, CEO

Anthony Salla, Hate Crime Policy Officer

Race on the Agenda

• Social policy think-tank set up in April 1984 which works with London’s Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities and others interested in race equality, towards achieving social justice by the elimination of discrimination and promotion of human rights, diversity and equality of opportunity.

• We achieve these aims by informing London’s strategic decision-makers about the issues affecting the BAME third sector and the communities it serves and by making government policy more accessible to London’s BAME organisations

• Current policy priorities: Crime & Anti-social behaviour, Equalities & Human Rights, Community Cohesion, Health & Social Services and Regional Government.

Restoring Relations Project (RRP)

A London-wide cooperative initiative, which aims to help reduce hate crime and its

impact through the use of restorative justice and the encouragement of multi-agency

partnerships between the Third Sector and crime reduction agencies.

Aims

Reduce hate crime in London boroughs by encouraging stakeholders to concentrateresources on types of crime, types of victims and perpetrators and geographicalareas• Produce models for short-term conflict resolution and long-term prevention• Forge and maintain multi-agency partnerships between Third Sector

organisations and statutory bodies

Methodology

Phase 1: Desk Research (June 2006 – June 2007)

Phase 2: Fieldwork (June 2007- 2008(

Phase 3: Dissemination and implementation (2008 – ongoing)

Youth Advisory Group – acting as a scrutiny panel

Funders since 2006

KEY FINDINGS: Gaps & Challenges

• Definitional ambiguity: research/policy/legislation/implementation.

• Reporting of hate crime

• Nature of hate crime in London

• Hate crime as a multi-dimensional issue

• Working in Silos

• An effective response from the CJS for lesser incidents is currently absent.

MAIN FINDINGS: Recommendations

• Prevention – the key to combating hate crime

• Supporting community based Restorative Justice programmes

• Building, maintaining and sourcing cross-sector multi-agency partnerships

ROTA: Moving forward together

• Transformative Justice Forum (Increase collaboration between the Third sector & statutory bodies and formulate strategies to share best practice).

• Develop and inform policy about the needs of groups that suffer high victimisation levels

• Increase awareness of CJS and support services available to victims

• Training and networking

Topics for discussion:

• Best practice examples: multi-agency work

• RJ, prevention and young people

• Policy and legislative improvements for moving forward

Contact Details

Race on the Agenda

Unit 101, Cremer Business Centre,

37 Cremer Street

London E2 8HD

020 77291310

CEO: theo@rota.org.uk

Policy Officer: anthony@rota.org.uk