ABSTRACT
As the broad range of topics reviewed in the Macpherson Report indicates, many aspects of policing are involved in responding to hate crime. First aid training, victim liaison and many of the routine tasks of criminal investigation apply to racist incidents as to any other crime. This chapter takes a relatively narrow focus as it explores the recent history of concern about the failure of policing racist violence and the developments that have sought to rectify the situation. Many of the reforms outlined below, most notably those stemming from the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act, pre-date the Lawrence Report, but were implemented against the context of the debate surrounding racist violence, of which the murder of Stephen Lawrence formed a large part. An important aspect of this debate, which developed in the United States, has related to the notion of ‘hate crime’, which is also explored below.
