Community Safety and Phobic Crime
In a nutshell
There's a lot of phobic crime about in the South West Peninsula. Very little of it is being reported.
If you are affected by phobic crime (homophobic or transphobic crime) do let someone know what's happening. Report to the police directly if you feel comfortable about doing this, otherwise please, at least, call us to let us know. (And we may be able to help.)
- Reporting by phone
- Internet and e-mail reporting
- What do you mean by "phobic crime" and "phobic incidents"?
- Do we know how much phobic crime there is?
- Does it matter if incidents aren't being reported?
- Why are incidents not being reported?
- What is Intercom doing?
In an emergency, especially where life is at risk, simply phone 999.
Our confidential community helpline number is 0845 6020 818 (normally open office hours, Mondays to Friday). Calls from landlines are low-cost (local rate), and we will ring you back if you ask. All our helpline team are themselves LGB or Trans. They are friendly, understanding, and well trained. For more information see Help.
For non-emergency calls to report an incident or crime to the police:
- the Devon and Cornwall Police number is 08452 777444
- the Dorset Police number is 01202 222222 or 01305 222222
- the Somerset Police number is 0845 4567000.
There may be a specialist Diversity Officer or Lesbian and Gay Liaison Officer in your area: look at your local policing page for Devon & Cornwall, Dorset, or Somerset to find out.
If you prefer to report a phobic or racist crime via the internet, there is supposed to be a national police-run system for doing this at http://www.report-it.org.uk, but when we checked in May 2007 the reporting web-page had been suspended. They do not say when it will come back on line. (Update, June 2008: whoever is responsible for this page has still not got round to making it available. What is going on here!?)
Remember, if you are thinking of reporting a crime on-line, whether it's a local government site or a police site or whatever, do make sure the site tells you clearly who will have access to any information you give, and what they will do with it.
If you would like more information about phobic incidents and crimes, go to our page What Could I Do About An Incident?
What do you mean by "phobic crime" and "phobic incidents"?
Lesbian gay bisexual people and transgendered people are of course just as likely or unlikely as anyone else to be affected by burglary, car-theft or identity-theft (to choose three random topics that are often in the news). Not everything bad that happens to us is prejudice-related! However, we do also live with the additional possibility of being targeted as an act of prejudice or hatred. At Intercom we use the terms "phobic incident" and "phobic crime" to mean "incidents or crimes which are motivated by homophobia and/or by transphobia." For more details see phobic incidents and crimes.
Do we know how much phobic crime there is?
We asked people about their experience of phobic abuse, harassment, threats and attacks in our big community survey in 2005. (The results were published in September 2006: A Firmer Foundation, which you can download from our Resources page.) In respect of the whole Devon and Cornwall police area the responses seem to reflect a good representative sample of the adult population. Based on these responses, we can say that each year there are between 4,000 and 7,000 crimes or incidents of these kinds against LGB/T adult residents in Cornwall, and between 5,000 and 8,000 against adult LGB/T residents in rural Devon. As for the big towns with a commercial gay scene---well, it appears from our survey that adult residents of Exeter, Plymouth and Torbay are four times more likely than rural residents to experience a phobic incident, possibly because they are likely to be more widely Out. We got fewer responses from rural and urban Dorset and Somerset, but it looks likely that the profile of crimes and incidents there is the same as we've found in Devon and Cornwall.
These figures are frankly appalling. But how much of all this is being reported? In the twelve months ending March 2006 there were only 223 phobic incidents reported to Devon and Cornwall Police (and that figure includes Exeter, Plymouth and Torbay), and 106 to Dorset Police (including Bournemouth). Clearly, there could have been thousands.
And bear in mind --- this particular survey was of people over 18. Young people, their parents, our helpline callers, and school staff all tell us that there's a serious problem of phobic abuse and bullying in South West schools. (See our Bullying page.) So their experiences are likely to be worse than adults'. We conducted a local survey in Devon survey in 2007, funded by the Local Network Fund, specifically to help young LGB/T people tell us about their experiences of crime and their sense of their own safety... have a look at the final report from this project.
Does it matter if incidents aren't being reported?
Yes!
For two reasons.
First, if more incidents were reported more incidents could be dealt with, some of the harassment could be stopped, and more victims could get justice.
Second, it's the number of reported incidents that largely determines how much attention the criminal justice system gives to phobic crime. This is most important when it comes to prevention. If more phobic incidents were reported, local government and the criminal justice system would do a lot more to stop these things from happening in the first place.
Why are incidents not being reported?
The root problem is that many LGB/T people feel we have inherited a long history of absolutely justified distrust of the police and the whole criminal justice system. It's true that what went on throughout the last century was horrendous; and it's also true that in some places the same kind of prejudice can still be found today. We've seen it in operation ourselves.
But things have moved on. There has been real progress, both locally and nationally. However, it's proved really difficult to spread good news to those who most need to hear it. (See below.)
According to the Firmer Foundation survey mentioned above (2006), over 60% of LGB/T people would or might be deterred from reporting an incident by any or all of these three anxieties:
- that the police wouldn't take it seriously
- that they'd encounter a phobic reaction from a police officer
- that information about their sexual orientation or gender identity might be stored in a file.
Even at the lowest end of the scale, 36% say they would or might be deterred simply by the thought of having to come Out to a police officer.
It is clearly a primary challenge for the police to find ways of dealing with these anxieties. Otherwise a very large minority of people in the rural South West are going to go on feeling barred from accessing justice, or even help. And we believe that to solve these problems, they need the help of the LGB/T communities.
In general, Intercom does believe there's been a lot of real progress from where we were ten years ago. There have been changes that could make a real difference to us all. Have a look at our page on the criminal justice system. We believe that LGB/T people in Devon and Cornwall are now more likely --- far more likely than, say, six or ten years ago --- to be treated equally with other citizens when we report an incident, and to find the incident being taken seriously from the word "go".
One problem is therefore that the great majority of LGB/T people in the peninsula don't know that things have changed. Another problem is that things still haven't changed enough: more real progress needs to be made.
We have done an enormous amount of work on crime and policing issues, and provided a lot of help to people affected by phobic crime, but nothing like as much as is needed. There is only so much that we can do: much of this work is still unfunded. There is not a single dedicated LGB/T community-safety worker anywhere in the peninsula, which is a disgraceful state of affairs. Community workers could do a lot to improve confidence and get more incidents reported and dealt with. This is just one of the reasons why reporting levels are still so low, why so many victims do not get justice, and why community trust and confidence in the police has not improved as much as we would wish.
We worked closely with Devon and Cornwall Police from 1998 to 2007, trying to help them improve the standards of service to LGB and Trans people and others affected by phobic crime. We found some senior officers and many others in Devon and Cornwall are genuinely committed to change, but this commitment has not yet worked its way through the system to all departments and all districts.
We are working hard in Devon and Cornwall to promote better reporting of phobic incidents, to get better support for people affected by phobic crime, and for better handling of such incidents leading to more successful prosecutions. We work closely on this with the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Local Criminal Justice Board, and the Victim Support and Witness Services.
One important feature of Devon and Cornwall police is their Diversity Officers, based in the four dedicated Diverse Communities Units covering Cornwall, Plymouth, South & West Devon, and North & East Devon. Some are uniformed officers, others are support staff, and we have a very high opinion of them all. Many LGB/T individuals in Devon and Cornwall know how much they have already achieved, and how much they can do to help people affected by phobic incidents and crimes. You can find their contact details on our local policing page for Devon and Cornwall.
For more about crime and policing in Devon and Cornwall, go to our dedicated web page.
We are in regular touch with officers at Dorset police Headquarters, and have a seat on the Pan-Dorset Racist and Homophobic Incidents Group. There are similar local groups in Bournemouth, Poole, and one for rural Dorset. However, all these groups are police-owned rather than community-led, and have a very wide remit which leaves little space for focusing on the major issues around homophobic and transphobic crime.
There is as yet no dedicated LGB/T Police Liaison Group in Dorset. We think this ought to be one of their priorities, and one of its first concerns ought to be the development of trust and confidence, and the encouragement and enabling of phobic crime reporting, particularly in rural Dorset where there is much to be done.
However, there has been a lot of good work by very committed dedicated police liaison officers in Bournemouth, and the benefits of their extremely successful work are also felt in neighbouring Poole. These liaison officers are called LAGLOs (Lesbian and Gay Liaison Officers, though they are not of course all LGB/T themselves). For details of how to contact them, and for more about crime and policing in Dorset, go to our Dorset police web page.
We have no contact with Somerset police except where in the past we have been asked to undertake casework to support individual victims of crime there. The last we heard, Somerset had closed down all its dedicated diversity officer or LAGLO posts---a thought that doesn't exactly inspire confidence. For more about crime and policing in Somerset, go to our dedicated web page. We would welcome hearing from anyone who lives or works in Somerset about their experience or opinions of crime and policing issues.