What is hate crime?
A hate crime is when someone is hostile or prejudice to another person because of their:
Race or ethnicity • Religion or belief
Sexual orientation • Gender identity • Disability
It is officially defined as 'Any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a person's race or perceived race; religion or perceived religion; sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation; disability or perceived disability and any crime motivated by hostility or prejudice against a person who is transgender or perceived to be transgender.'
A hate incident is any incident which the victim, or anyone else, thinks is based on someone’s prejudice towards them because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or because they are transgender.
Incidents may involve physical assault, damage to property, bullying, harassment, verbal abuse or insults, offensive graffiti or letters /text messages/ emails/ comments over social media.
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Hate crimes/incidents can take place anywhere – at home, in the streets, at work, online or at school.
No-one should have to live with the fear, anxiety and consequences of hate
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Reporting it when it happens will help the police and their partners to deal with it and may prevent these incidents from happening to someone else.
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It will also help the police understand the extent of hate crime in your local area so they can better respond to it.
Why is it important to report hate incidents and crimes?
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We know that hate can leave people feeling unsafe or scared to go out, and cause fear and mistrust amongst different parts of the community. We also know that sometimes people might think that reporting a hate incident or hate crime is not important.
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They might be embarrassed to talk about it, scared of the consequences from the offender, or believe they won’t be taken seriously. This is not the case, in Dudley hate incidents and crimes are taken very seriously.
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Courts can even impose a tougher sentence on someone, if the crime they committed was motivated by hate.