Hate crimes rose by 50 percent in some areas England and Wales between July 2015 and July 2016, according to a new report by the Press Association [BBC report] Wednesday. The new analysis supplements a report [text, PDF] from the Home Office, released in October, that showed an increase in hate crimes. The report defined hate crime to be any crime including “any group defined by race, colour, nationality or ethnic or national origin, including countries within the UK, and Gypsy or Irish Travellers. It automatically includes a person who is targeted because they are an asylum seeker or refugee as this is intrinsically linked to their ethnicity and origins.” The most hate crimes were reported in to the London, Manchester, West Yorkshire, and West Midlands police departments, but Dorset and Nottinghamshire faced the largest increases, 100 percent and 75 percent, respectively. Annex A of the October report states that the June decision of the UK to leave the EU [JURIST report] saw a spike in hate crimes. Nationalism [JURIST op-ed] has been identified by some as a factor in the Brexit decision.

An increase in hate crimes has been reported around the globe. In November the FBI said [JURIST report] that hate crimes, especially against Muslims, were on the rise in the US. In the UK, prosecutors have been encouraged [JURIST report] to use tougher sentences against hate crimes [BBC report] in response to the nation’s increasingly hostile environment since the EU referendum. Since the middle of June more than 6,000 hate crimes and incidents have been reported to the authorities.