Vast majority of NSW hate crimes race and religion related: study

A new University of Sydney study provides the most comprehensive picture of the patterns of hate crime in Australia to date. It has revealed the prevalence of race and religion-based hate crimes, and that people of Asian, Indian/Pakistani and Muslim backgrounds are the most frequent victims. Hate crime - also referred to as 'bias crime' - is crime that is motivated by prejudice, bias or hatred towards a presumed characteristic of the victim, such as race, religion, sexual orientation, disability status or gender identity. Professor Gail Mason from the Sydney Institute of Criminology in the University of Sydney Law School has undertaken the first analysis of official records of bias crime held by the New South Wales Police Force. "The NSW Police Force has the longest-standing bias crime initiative in Australia. Its data provides a unique picture of the kinds of incidents that the public report and the police record as bias crime across the state of NSW," Professor Mason said. For this study, data from a three-year period from July 2013 to June 2016 was selected for analysis.