Classification errors in police statistics on criminal offenses with an extremist context Cover Image

Klasifikační chyba v policejních statistikách trestných činů s extremistickým podtextem
Classification errors in police statistics on criminal offenses with an extremist context

Author(s): Václav Walach, Benjamin Petruželka
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Sociology, Criminology
Published by: Česká kriminologická společnost
Keywords: hate crime; bias crime; police; statistics; crime; political extremism

Summary/Abstract: Police statistics serve as a basic tool for understanding the prevalence and nature of hate crimes, albeit with limited accuracy. This study focuses on statistics for crimes with an extremist context provided by the Czech police, which also includes bias crimes. The aim is to ascertain the extent to which police statistics correspond to the information available to criminal justice authorities. Following existing research on hate crime statistics, the analysis maps classification error, i.e., a situation in which statistical data do not correspond to the information provided by criminal justice authorities. A comparative analysis reveals that the number of bias crimes is higher than stated in police statistics and over half of the anti-Jewish, anti-Roma and anti-Muslim crimes are misclassified in terms of motive.

  • Issue Year: 6/2021
  • Issue No: 1-2
  • Page Range: 1-23
  • Page Count: 23
  • Language: Czech