Recording and Reporting Racist Hate Crime: Police and Civil Society Responses

This chapter critically engages with statutory and civil responses to the recording and reporting of ‘race’ hate in the Republic of Ireland. As will be argued below, statutory policies, practices and cultural responses to the recording of ‘race’ hate, focusing here in particular on An Garda Síochána (the Irish police force), are problematic in terms of their consistency and lack of any real substance. The impact that these responses have on those who are the targets of ‘race’ hate when it comes to reporting their experiences is made evident in the low numbers of officially reported incidents made to An Garda Síochána and the related lack of trust demonstrated in the research discussed below. The impact that ineffective recording practices and low reporting have is an inability of a state to police ‘race’ hate, in that it cannot form efficacious, evidence-based policies that could enable a meaningful challenge to racism.