What is hate crime?
什么是仇恨犯罪？

23 minutes to read

Definition

Hate crime = criminal offence + hate element

A hate crime is 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：

disability or perceived disability
race or perceived race
religion or perceived religion
sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation or
transgender or perceived transgender identity¹

In short, a hate crime is any action that is currently considered as a criminal offence under UK law that has a hate element.

法律定义

仇恨犯罪 = 一般刑事犯罪 + 仇恨因素

仇恨犯罪是任何受敌意或偏见所驱使的刑事犯罪。当受害者或其他人认为加害者是出于对受害人的:

残疾
种族
宗教信仰
性取向或
跨性别者身份

…的敌意或歧视而进行犯罪时，此类犯罪行为就构成仇恨犯罪。需要注意的是，只要加害人主观认定受害人有某一特征并且对此特征抱有敌意或歧视，更进一步实施犯罪行为，那么这一行为就构成仇恨犯罪，受害者并不需要真的拥有这一特征。¹

简而言之，任何受仇恨驱动，且目前在英国现行法律下被视作刑事犯罪的行为都是仇恨犯罪。

What is a hate element?

The hate element can take the form of:

Hostility: ill-will, ill-feeling, spite, prejudice, unfriendliness, antagonism, resentment, and dislike.
Prejudice: a baseless and often negative preconception or attitude towards members of a group.

The victim does not need to personally perceive the incident to be hate-related. It would be enough if another person, a witness or even a police officer thought that the incident was hate related.

仇恨因素的定义是什么？

仇恨因素包括以下：

敌意：恶意、恶感、怨恨、偏见、不友善、敌视、憎恶、反感
偏见：一种针对某一个特定群体并且毫无根据的、通常来说是负面的成见或态度。

需要注意的是，并不是只有当受害人自己有察觉到仇恨才算仇恨因素。只要有另外一个人（比如目击者或警察）认为加害人是受仇恨因素所驱动，那么该事件就能被定性为仇恨事件。

Forms of hate crime

As mentioned above, as any criminal offence with a hate element is a hate crime, it can take place anywhere and in any form. Below are some examples of the types of crimes that could potentially involve a hate element:

Assaults
Criminal damage
Harassment
Murder
Sexual assault
Theft
Burglary
Hate mail

仇恨犯罪的种类

如上所述，仇恨犯罪是带有仇恨因素的刑事犯罪。它可能在任何地点以任何形式发生。以下是一些最常见的仇恨犯罪形式：

袭击
刑事破坏
刑事骚扰
谋杀
性犯罪
偷窃
入室盗窃
仇恨信件

Inciting hatred

Hate crime can also be in the form of incitement of hatred.

This occurs when the person does not directly conduct hateful actions or speech against the victim, but they act in a way that is threatening and intends to stir up hatred. This could be through words, pictures, videos, music, and includes information posted on websites.

Specific examples of incitement of hatred include:

Social media posts that call 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 group²

Under the current legislation, it is a criminal offence to incite hatred on the grounds of race, religion and sexual orientation.³ However, if you are aware of incitement of hatred on any other grounds, you should still report it as a hate crime.

煽动仇恨

煽动仇恨也是仇恨犯罪的一种形式。

当煽动者并未直接对一个人采取仇恨行为或发表仇恨言论，而是通过某些行为试图挑起他人针对某个人或群体的仇恨时，这就构成煽动仇恨。这里的煽动行为可包括文字、图片、影像、音乐和在网站上发布信息。

煽动仇恨的具体例子包括：

在社交媒体上号召他人对某个人或群体采取暴力行动
通过在网站上发布图片、影像或关于暴力的文字描述煽动的他人对某个人或群体的仇恨
在聊天室要求他人对某个人或群体进行仇恨犯罪²

根据现行法律，煽动他人对某个种族、宗教和性取向群体的仇恨属于刑事犯罪。³ 但是，如果您察觉到任何针对某个人或群体煽动仇恨的行为（不论该行为是否与种族、宗教或性取向有关），您都可以向警方举报。

Hate crime or incident?

Hate incident = an action that is not a criminal offence + hate element

A hate incident is any incident which the victim, or anyone else, thinks is based on someone’s prejudice towards them because of their:

disability or perceived disability
race or perceived race
religion or perceived religion
sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation or
transgender or perceived transgender identity

In short, in a hate incident, the actions involved in the incident is not currently a criminal offence under the UK law.

Regardless of whether it is a hate crime/hate incident, the victim should always be encouraged to make a report. The police strongly encourages the report of BOTH hate crime AND hate incidents.

仇恨犯罪还是仇恨事件？

仇恨事件 = 不是刑事犯罪的行为 + 仇恨因素

仇恨事件是任何受敌意或偏见所驱使的事件。当受害者或其他人认为一个人是出于对受害人的：

残疾
种族
宗教信仰
性取向或
跨性别者身份

…的敌意或歧视而进行骚扰行为时，这就构成仇恨事件。

简而言之，仇恨事件是指任何受仇恨因素驱使、但在英国目前的法律框架下尚不是刑事犯罪的行为。

不管受害人所遭受的是仇恨犯罪还是仇恨事件，他们都可以将其举报给警方。警方强烈鼓励民众对仇恨犯罪以及仇恨事件进行举报。

Case studies

Below we have provided a number of case studies to help work through incidents you or members of your community may encounter. Please read through them and think about whether one of the following has occurred:

Hate crime
Hate incident
General crime
None of the above

案例分析

在下文中，我们提供了几个案例供您与您的社区成员参考。请判断以下案例分别属于下列哪种情况：

仇恨犯罪
仇恨事件
一般犯罪
以上皆不是

Case Study 1

“Due to a disability I walk with a cane. I was on my way to the shopping mall when a group of young people started following me. They laughed and pretended to walk with a cane. Then they kicked my walking cane. I fell down and they ran away.”

The group of people has caused physical harm to the person, which constitutes a criminal offence. This is clearly motivated by the hostility towards the person’s disability. This is a typical example of a hate crime.

案例1

“我由于身体残疾必须拄拐走路。有一天，我正朝着商场走去，突然一群年轻人跟了过来。他们一边笑一边模仿拄拐走路的样子。之后，他们踢了我的拐杖。我摔倒之后他们就跑走了。”

评论：这群人对叙述者已经造成了身体伤害，该行为构成了刑事犯罪。显而易见的，该犯罪行为是受这群人对叙述者的身体残疾的偏见和/或敌意所驱使的。这是典型的仇恨犯罪。

Case Study 2

“My next-door neighbour is very noisy. He plays loud music late at night. When I asked him to turn down the music after 10 p.m. because I must wake up early for my work, he yelled offensive things at me. The next day I found offensive graffiti on my car”

Graffiti on cars could constitute criminal damage. The verbal abuse involved could also constitute a criminal offence depending on the circumstances. If the offensive things yelled and the content of the graffiti show hostility or prejudice towards the person’s characteristics, it would involve a hate element and therefore be a hate crime/incident. From the limited information provided, it is difficult to determine the exact nature of the incidents.

案例2

”我的邻居非常吵闹，他常常在深夜时大声播放音乐。我请他在晚上10点之后把音量调小，因为我早上需要早起上班。他听完之后对我喊了很多侮辱性的话。第二天，我在我的车上发现了带有侮辱性内容的涂鸦。“

评论：在私人财产上的涂鸦可能构成刑事破坏。言语上的侮辱根据具体情况也可能构成刑事犯罪。而如果涂鸦和口头侮辱的内容中带有明显针对叙述者个人特征的攻击，那么这就构成了仇恨因素。如果以上几点都成立，那么上述事件就可被视为仇恨事件或仇恨犯罪。但是，由于案例中所给的信息有限（比如，侮辱性言语和涂鸦的具体内容、叙述者或其他人是否认为这些行为是受仇恨所驱使），我们很难对该事件进行定性。

Case Study 3

“Somebody posted a tweet on twitter that said transgender women are all disgusting and shouldn’t be allowed in public”

In this case there is a clear hate element in the hostility and prejudice shown against transgender women. Under the current law, using threatening words or behaviour, or displaying any written material which is threatening, is guilty of an offence if the person intends to stir up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation.⁴ However, this provision currently does not cover transgender identity. Regardless of the exact legal nature of this act, it constitutes a hate incident.

案例3

“有人在推特上发布了一条推文，称所有跨性别女性都是恶心的，并表示她们不应该被允许进入公众场合。”

评论：显而易见的，此处针对跨性别女性的恶意构成仇恨因素。在目前的法律框架下，通过威胁性语言或行为、或通过展示任何威胁性文字煽动对某一个性取向群体的恶意是违法的。⁴ 目前该法律尚不覆盖跨性别身份。不过，不论该行为是否构成刑事犯罪，这都是一个仇恨事件，应当被举报。

Case Study 4

“Somebody handed out flyers in the town centre saying that Chinese people are all to blame for Coronavirus and that Chinese people in England need to be punished with violence”

The message displayed can be seen as expressing prejudice and hostility towards Chinese people, and therefore can be considered a hate element. The act itself may amount to a criminal offence ‘displaying to another person any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting.⁵ However, it ultimately depends on the specific facts of the case and the eventual prosecution outcome.

案例4

“有些人在镇中心向路人发送传单，说新冠病毒会发生都是中国人的错，在英国的中国人都应当被暴力惩治。”

评论：该讯息可被视作是针对中国人的偏见与恶意，可构成仇恨因素。按照目前的法律，案例中的行为可能构成“向他人发送具有威胁性或侮辱性的文字、标语或其他视觉信息”这一刑事罪名。⁵ 但是，罪名是否成立最终将取决于个案情况以及起诉结果。

Summary

The purpose of the case studies shown above is to illustrate that there is a fine line between hate crimes, hate incidents and other general crime. It can be incredibly difficult to distinguish one from another. The police strongly encourages the report of BOTH hate crime and hate incidents. The victim should never be required to work out the nature of the event before to be “eligible” to make a report.

When making a report, the victim should mention that hate is involved if they subjectively experienced so.

结论

以上案例的目的是为了阐明：仇恨犯罪、仇恨事件、和一般犯罪的区分在有些情况下可能非常困难。警察的立场是鼓励民众积极举报仇恨事件以及仇恨犯罪。无论受害人遭受的是仇恨事件还是仇恨犯罪，他们都有报案的资格及权利。

如果受害人主观上感受到了仇恨，那么在报案时，受害人应对警方说明这一点。

Why report hate crime and hate incidents?

When you report hate crime, you become part of the movement to stop it. No matter how small or trivial you think the incident might be, it is important to the whole community that it is acknowledged and reported.

Every report builds up a picture of what is really going on in your local area, showing patterns of behaviour against a certain group or by particular individuals.

Reporting of the issue can:

Help police adjust plans like where, when and how they deploy resources.
Help local agencies like the police and councils understand the issue, so that they can educate, inform and protect everyone in the area. For example, councils can mobilise community engagement and community safety teams and commission trainings for the public.
Build a more accurate statistical picture of the issue and inform prosecutors, legislators and raise awareness with the general public.

Even if you think your report might not lead to any immediate substantive results, it will benefit the wider community.

Metropolitan Police, ‘What is hate crime?’ ↩
College of Policing, ‘Major investigation and public protection’ ↩
Public Order Act 1986, Part 3A ↩
Ibid. ↩
Ibid, section 4 ↩

我们为何应当举报仇恨犯罪/事件？

所有的举报都会替仇恨犯罪的遏制出一份力。不管您认为您所遭受的事件是否严重，您的举报都会帮助社群变得更加安全，并帮助您的社群更好地理解仇恨问题的规模。

每份举报都将帮助完善各个社区的信息，并揭露任何针对特定群体或个人的犯罪行为模式。

举报仇恨事件以及仇恨犯罪还可：

帮助当地警方调整针对该社区的规划，比如警力资源的分布。
帮助当地的政府机构（比如警察或市政府）更好地理解仇恨问题，使他们能够更好地教育并保护他们辖区中的居民。譬如说，当地政府可以调动社区保护团队等并给公众举办训练。
帮助建立更准确的仇恨犯罪数据资料，这些数据可以被用于向检察官、立法者和公众说明问题的严重性。 For example, councils can mobilise community engagement and community safety teams and commission trainings for the public. 就算您认为您的举报在短期内不会有任何实质性的结果，您的举报仍将使广大的社会群众受益。

Metropolitan Police, ‘What is hate crime?’ ↩
College of Policing, ‘Major investigation and public protection’ ↩
Public Order Act 1986, Part 3A ↩
Ibid. ↩
Ibid, section 4 ↩

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