Majority-Muslim Hate Crimes in England: An Interpretive Quantitative Analysis

Abstract

This article derives insights on majority-Muslim hate crimes in North England from a voluminous police dataset of racial and religious hate crimes in two districts. The ethnic identities of complainants and suspects, as recorded in the dataset, are used to establish patterns of perpetration and victimization in the wider context of majority-Muslim community relations. To make the most of a patchy evidence base and gain help with interpretation, I present preliminary results of my data analysis to hate crime practitioners in police, local government and civil society. The most striking findings are that hate crime practitioners explain the higher incidence of hate crimes late at night and during weekends with alcohol and nightlife socializing; that minorities, whether Asian Muslim or White British, are overrepresented as victims in their own residential area; and that there is more victimization among male than female Muslims, calling into question the narrative of “gendered Islamophobia.”.