Overall crime in the North has decreased, but the incidents of racism, sexual assaults and homophobia have increased significantly, according to the latest annual statistics from the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
The PSNI reported almost 128,000 offences during the year from the end of March last year compared to 142,000 offences for the previous financial year, representing a crime reduction of 10 per cent.
There were reductions in the incidents of theft, criminal damage and burglary - down respectively by 6,220, 4,169 and 2,270 - which accounted for most of the decrease. There were also decreases in the incidents of fraud and forgery, robbery and offences against the state.
The overall clearance rate was 27.4 per cent, 4.4 percentage points higher than that achieved in the previous year.
Sexual assault cases rose from 1,469 the previous year to 1,780 this year, an increase of 311. The number of indecent assaults against boys rose from 84 to 150, up by 79 per cent, while there were 10 reported incidents of unlawful sex with girls aged under 14, compared to only one the previous year. Reported rapes increased from 317 to 354.
Homophobic incidents more than doubled from 35 to 71, while the number of racially motivated incidents also rose from 226 to 453.
About a third of the racist cases occurred in south Belfast, where most of the victims were of Chinese, Indian or African origin. Police suspect that the reporting of incidents does not truly reflect the extent of the problem.
The PSNI Chief Constable, Mr Hugh Orde, said the increases in such crime was worrying, and his officers were working with ethnic organisations to try to build confidence and trust within these communities.
"The numbers are still very small, but that doesn't underestimate the impact on those victims. It is still nowhere as severe as other parts of the UK, but we take it very seriously. This is not the race-hate centre of the United Kingdom," Mr Orde said.
The Sinn Féin Assembly member, Mr Alex Maskey, who reported a racist attack on a Chinese woman in south Belfast earlier this week, said politicians from both sides of the divide must unite in combating racism.
Chief Insp Mark Hamilton from the Craigavon District Command Unit, which saw 31 racist incidents, said racism was an emerging problem which the PSNI was determined to tackle.
Ms Dolores Kelly, the Upper Bann SDLP Assembly member, said society in Northern Ireland should be ashamed of the rise in racial attacks.
"In the same way as so many Irish people have been welcomed in foreign lands over the years, so now we should reach out to embrace immigrants into our own country," she said.
Mr Orde, commenting on the overall figures, said that the relative absence of violence during last summer's marching season had helped police reduce crime.
"This enabled us to free up resources to deal with ordinary crime and paramilitary activity that otherwise would have been deployed dealing with public order.
"Much of that achievement is down to the community as well as to police officers," he said.
The chairman of the Policing Board, Prof Desmond Rea, said the reduction in crime was a real achievement which demonstrated that issues which affected everyday life within the community were being tackled by the police right across Northern Ireland.
