By Yago Zayed and Grahame Allen

Police recorded crime figures in 2022/23 show that there were 145,214 offences where one or more of the centrally monitored hate crime strands were deemed to be a motivating factor. This represented a 5% decrease on figures::: for 2021/22. These figures do not include Devon and Cornwall police force who did not provide data this year due to the implementation of a new IT system.

The increase in police recorded hate crime over time prior to this year has partly been attributed to better recording methods used and greater awareness in reporting hate crimes.

This briefing paper looks at Hate Crime in England & Wales using figures provided by the Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW) and the Police Recorded Crime Series. The paper also presents data on hate crime rates per 100,000 population in each police force area and for each hate crime strand. It also looks at similar figures in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

London: UK Parliament, House of Commons Library, 2024 51p.

By Guillermo Vázquez del Mercado, Luis Félix and Gerardo Carballo

Extortion is one of the main crimes that negatively affect citizen security in the Northern Triangle of Central America (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador) and, to a lesser extent, Costa Rica and Panama. Given the widespread presence of this crime in the region, the availability, relevance and reliability of data on extortion are essential to understand its magnitude, as well as to develop evidence-based public policies to contain it and build community resilience. However, unlike for other crimes such as homicides, public institutions in the countries of the region have not yet developed a specific methodology to collect, produce and disseminate up-to-date, reliable, relevant and high-quality data on extortion. This shortcoming hampers the analysis and research needed to measure the real magnitude of this crime and to generate evidence-based public policies. Furthermore, the dynamics of cooperation and territorial disputes between organized crime groups and the lack of knowledge about the variables involved in establishing an extortion rate are additional factors that merit further investigation, as they make it difficult for public institutions to measure extortion.1 This report analyzes the availability of public data on extortion and the transparency mechanisms for accessing it. To do so, the authors reviewed the availability and accessibility of data on extortion from official sources in the countries concerned, particularly the websites of national police forces and prosecutors' offices.

Geneva: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2021.