Terrorism arrests - analysis of charging and sentencing outcomes by religion
The figures in this article are for people arrested, charged and/or convicted following a terrorism-related arrest in Great Britain, from 1 September 2001 to 31 August 2012.
Documents
Details
This briefing has been published alongside the 2012/2013 statistics on Operation of Police Powers under the Terrorism Act 2000 and subsequent legislation, to provide more detailed information. The short article is intended as additional analysis following a comment in the 2011 annual report by the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, David Anderson Q.C., identifying a perceived link between religion and sentence length for those arrested for terrorism-related offences.
“Some Muslims believe that there is a greater readiness on the part of press, politicians, police and law enforcement officers to characterise attacks by Muslims as ‘terrorism’ than attacks by far-right extremists. This, they say, results in discriminatory sentencing and cements popular perceptions of terrorism, at least in Great Britain, as crime perpetrated overwhelmingly by Muslims.” (The Terrorism Acts in 2011, David Anderson Q.C., June 2012, p.26).