Hate crime

Hate crimes comes in many different forms and strike at the heart of communities. With your help, we can tackle those responsible for hate crime and keep our communities safe. On this page you will find out how to spot a hate crime, report it and get help. You will also find out where to get support and advice, both online and in your community.

Definition

Most crimes are motivated by the offender wanting something that the victim has or controls. Hate crimes are different in that it is ‘who’ the victim is, or ‘what’ the victim appears to be that motivates the offender to commit the crime.

You could be a victim of a hate crime if you think the crime committed against you was motivated by hostility or prejudice based on you:

  • race or perceived race
  • religion or perceived religion
  • sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation
  • disability or perceived disability
  • transgender identity or perceived to be transgender identity

Types of hate crimes

Hate crimes can fall into one of three main types. These are physical assault, verbal abuse and incitement to hatred.

Physical assault

Physical assault of any kind is an offence. If you’ve been a victim of physical assault, you should report it. Depending on the level of the violence used, a perpetrator may be charged with common assault, actual bodily harm or grievous bodily harm.

Verbal abuse

Verbal abuse, threats or name-calling can be a common and extremely unpleasant experience for minority groups.

Victims of verbal abuse are often unclear whether an offence has been committed or believe there is little they can do. However, there are laws in place to protect you from verbal abuse.

Do report the crime, even if you don’t know who verbally abused you. The information could still help us to improve how we police the area where the abuse took place.

Incitement to hatred

Inciting hatred is when someone acts in a way that is threatening and intends to stir up hatred. That could be in words, pictures, videos, music and includes information posted on websites.

Hate content may include:

  • messages calling for violence against a specific person or group
  • web pages that show pictures, videos or descriptions of violence against anyone due to their perceived differences
  • chat forums where people ask other people to commit hate crimes against a specific person or group

Hate incidents

If you have experienced an event directed at you where no law has been broken but you believe it was motivated by prejudice against you for the one of reasons above, it is a hate incident. 

Not all hate incidents will amount to criminal offences, but it is equally important that these are reported and recorded by the police. 

Report a hate crime

To report a hate crime, contact:

The Home Office website gives clear information on how to stop hate crime.

Resources and support

Make a complaint

Complaints about this page should be made using our complaints process.

An appropriate course of action will then be decided and will follow the corporate complaints procedure.