Reportable

What is Hate Crime

8 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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:

  1. Hate crime
  2. Hate incident
  3. General crime
  4. None of the above

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

  1. Metropolitan Police, ‘What is hate crime?’ ↩

  2. College of Policing, ‘Major investigation and public protection’ ↩

  3. Public Order Act 1986, Part 3A ↩

  4. Ibid. ↩

  5. Ibid, section 4 ↩