Between 2022 and 2023, the proportion of hate crimes motivated by gender identity nearly doubled.
There were 229 incidents of hate motivated by gender identity reported in 2023, up 42% from the 161 incidents reported in 2022, according to new data released to RNZ under the Official Information Act.
However, according to police, this figure is likely not accurately depict the hatred directed at transgender and minority neighborhoods.
The number of incidents increased by at least 95 percent over the course of the previous two years when English anti-trans advocate Posie Parker visited Aotearoa in March 2023.
Auckland City and Wellington both reported half of the hate crimes committed against trans people in the month, with the remaining third spreading across five different regions.
The New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey shows LGBTTQIA+ communities are less likely to report a crime to police, its director of prevention, innovation, and change Mere Wilson Tuala-Fata says.
“Police only files incidents that were reported to them, and therefore it’s possible to undercount the actual number of crimes,” Tuala-Fata said.
She said it would take a while before police data could accurately assess the root level of hate violence and incidents in New Zealand, with the most recent data showing increased attention, improved monitoring, and incident recording.
There were many reasons why there could be an increase in reported hate-motivated offenses against a particular area, Tuala-Fata said. These included a real increase in the number of hate-motivated crimes against particular communities and expanded reporting vigilance due to the uneasiness felt by a neighborhood as a result of extremely noticeable events.
While authorities have been able to capture hate crime information since 2019, it was given funding for Te Raranga, a four-year initiative to train officers to recognize and report hate-motivated crimes, support victims and communities, and work to reduce harm.
Between 2022 and 2023, the total rate of hate crimes reported to police increased by 13%.
‘Not at all surprising’
Aotearoa’s Gender Minorities Association executive director Ahi Wi-Hongi claimed hate against transgender people had been documented for a long time by trans communities, but that information is just starting to become more common knowledge.
“I believe it’s crucial to bring attention to the way that transgender people are targeted, and I believe that the best protection is in a well-informed area.”
Gender Minorities Aotearoa, according to Wi-Hongi, offers help for people who are targeted by anti-trans intimidation, among other things.
This includes those who are directly affected by policies, medical prejudice, and other problems brought on by widespread anti-trans attitudes and a lack of attention to trans people’s basic needs, according to the report.
The rise in hate crimes during Posie Parker’s visit is not at all unexpected to us, they said.
“This is what we predicted. Vocal fanatics sway and radicalize other people to extreme viewpoints and actions.”
Hate crime regulations
Hate crimes, while presently recorded by police, are certainly a walk alone offense. Although judges may consider hate to be an aggravating factor in punishment.
In the absence of certain legislative definitions, an officer’s working definition of a hate crime “is any crime which is perceived, by the target or any other person, to be motivated, wholly or in part, by hostility or intolerance based on a person’s specific characteristic, such as race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or age”.
Hate crime regulations reform was one of the recommendations of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the 15 March terror attacks and was initiated by the former government but has since been referred to the Law Commission.
When was it planned to start this work?
“Hate acts of any nature are concerning,” Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said in a statement.
Goldsmith said after resources were available, the Law Commission will conduct an “independent, detailed, and considered evaluation” of the policy.
He said, “It will provide an update on the timing of this work in due course.”
When asked if the Law Commission should engage in the review’s dialogue with trans communities, Goldsmith replied, “I expect it to engage loosely in its work.”
The secretary ordered the Law Commission to halt work on proposed hate speech legislation in March, arguing that this would have harmed free speech.
Wi-Hongi argued that it was crucial that any efforts to pass hate speech policy included experts like Gender Minorities Aotearoa and trans people in general.
They remarked, “We know that other countries abroad have had some success with hate speech safeguards.”
These safeguards may be effective against more explicit extremists, but they are unlikely to prevent extremists from spreading more subtle anti-trans propaganda. “
