Wednesday, June 25, 2008
One in five gays and lesbians has been the victim of a hate crime or incident in the past three years, according to a damning new report.
However, three-quarters of victims do not bother to report crimes – a third because they do not think police can, or will, do anything about it.
Of those that did go to the authorities, just one in 25 saw it result in a conviction, the survey by gay charity Stonewall found.
Chief executive Ben Summerskill told Metro: 'It's entirely unacceptable in 2008 that anyone should live in fear of attack and abuse simply because of who they are.
This evidence is a scar on the face of a modern nation.'
The charity is billing its research as the first statistically significant national survey of its kind into homophobic crime.
It was carried out, with Home Office support, following the conviction of two men for the homophobic murder of Jody Dobrowski on Clapham Common in June 2006.
The report recommends encouraging police to improve the recording of homophobic incidents and tackling bullying in schools and offices.
Last night, home secretary Jacqui Smith said she would ask a ministerial action group to tackle the issue.
She added: 'In the 21st century, no one should ever feel under threat of verbal or physical violence just because of their sexual orientation.'
Mike Cunningham, of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: 'It cannot be acceptable that a third of victims do not report incidents because they do not think the police would, or could, do anything about it.'
Mr Dobrowski's mother, Sheri, said: 'Homophobia is endemic in society. We cannot accept this. No intelligent, healthy or reasonable society could.'
No comments:
Post a Comment