Third-party reporting bodies can log hate crimes victims won’t report to police

Evidence

The study employed purposive sampling, which is a non-random method of participant recruitment. Prospective participants were Muslims who had reported their online and offline experiences of Islamophobia to Tell MAMA. Launched in 2012, the Tell MAMA programme is a non-profit organisation that is coordinated and implemented by an interfaith organisation, Faith Matters. Tell MAMA offers services to individuals who have suffered Islamophobic attacks. It operates as an alternative reporting system on the basis that if victims want the attack logged and passed on to the police (but they do not wish to contact the police themselves), Tell MAMA will do this on their behalf. … An advantage of employing Tell MAMA for participant recruitment was that individuals were introduced to the study by a familiar, trusted organisation. This alleviated any concerns that participants might have had about taking part in the study, thus potentially increasing participation in the study. — Irene Zempi and Imran Awan, Islamophobia, 59

Categorization

• SEED: Possible piece on intermediary hate-crime reporting bodies — how trusted NGOs substitute for police and what that says about official undercounting.