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A hate crime is now seen as a criminal offence which is recognised by the victim or any other person, which has been motivated by prejudice based on one of these protected characteristics 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.'  (Metropolitan Police, 2018)

Within hate crimes, the protected characteristics are the main motivating factor that would cause someone to commit a hate crime, however there are two that have seen a high increase in how common they occur, one being race where there was a 98% increase over a 10-year period being the motivating factor and a 415% increase in religion being the motivating factor behind someone committing a hate crime (Zayed, 2019).

Certain people get hate crimes committed against them just for 'being different' for example if you go into a place where everyone is of the same race and you who is someone of a different race walk through that area then you can be the target of a hate crime just for purely being different to them and not being the stereotype of who is usually in that area.

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The first clear way that people can report a hate crime is directly by calling the police, failing that if they aren't aware of it at the moment in time and then realise that a hate crime has been committed then they can ring the non emergency line further on from the hate crime happening.

If someone is in need of help with how to deal with the reporting hate crime there are numerous different things in place to help them, things such as charities, victim support and the victim contact scheme are just a few ways that those who have been affected by hate crime can all get help with the process of reporting and then taking it further if it comes to it. (Service, 2015)

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This is a short video on just a few ways that a hate crime can happen, these types of attacks can often leave the victims of it heavily impacted and can cause things such as panic attacks, anxiety about leaving the house and serious emotional damage. (Home Office, 2019)

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Some interviews with those who have had a hate crime committed against them

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Some interviews with those who have had a hate crime committed against them

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Within this video, victims of hate crimes speak out on how it has impacted there life on a day to day basis.

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Hate crime victims speak out about impact as figures increase during pandemic | ITV News

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There is no acceptable reason to why someone has committed a hate crime, there is no reason to why someone should be discriminated against for something that is out of their control such as race, age, or their sexuality. Although, a report made by Voices for victims and witnesses claims their to be four reasons to why people commit hate crimes.

-One of those being thrilled seeking, some people are seen to be immature and only commit hate crimes for the thrill that they get from it and quite often they do not think about the repercussions of their actions may not only have on the victim but also the community that they come from.

-A further reason to someone committing a hate crime is the sense of being defensive, this type of person is seeing what they do as nothing wrong and all they are doing is defending their neighbourhood, workplace or even their own religion. Unlike the thrill seeker type of person who commits hate crimes due to being defensive target specific victims and justify their crimes to make themselves feel better.

-A third reason to why someone may commit a hate crime is retaliation, this hate crime is seen to get revenge whether that be for a previous hate crime committed against them or their community. Even though the individual who may have committed the first attack has no relation to the community some people will target that chosen community anyway just to get a sense of retaliation.

The final reason to why someone may commit a hate crime is people known as ‘mission offenders’ and they are often seen as the most dangerous type of people who commit hate crimes. They often see themselves as ‘crusaders’ whether that is for a racial reason, or a religious reason and their only mission is to create a sense of war against those who are not in the same groups as they are. (Burke & Hernandez, 2017)

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What effect does hate crimes have on people?

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What effect does hate crimes have on people?

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What effect hate crimes has on people?

The effect of hate crimes can not only affect that one individual but also the whole community of where that person is a part of. In England and Wales for example, the number of hate crimes recorded by police has increased dramatically, rising 29% to more than 80,000, in 2016-17.

The most common response to hate crime is obviously anger, however, there has been a reported feeling of anxiety and vulnerability were also reported amongst communities, in a project perfumed by the University of Sussex involving 1,000 Muslims and 2,000 members of the LGBT community and it found that 4 out of 5 the participants knew of someone who has been targeted by hate crimes and at least half of them knowing someone who has been physically assaulted in relation to a hate crime. (Rupert Brown, 2018)

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Statistics of Hate Crime and the feelings of those who are targeted

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Statistics of Hate Crime and the feelings of those who are targeted

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What legislation is out there to protect those who have the protected characteristics?

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What legislation is out there to protect those who have the protected characteristics?

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Since 2010, there has been a legislation in place to protect certain characteristics that have been discriminated against and had hate crimes committed against them. This is the Equality Act; its use is to legally protect people from discrimination not only in the workplace but in wider society too. It was implemented to replace previous legislation such as the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, Race Relations Act 1976, and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Gov UK, 2013) and perform as one singular act which covers all the previous acts. Those protected characteristics are age, race, sexuality, disabilities, religion, gender reassignment and pregnancy (Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2021).

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What could be done to prevent hate crimes?

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What could be done to prevent hate crimes?

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There are endless things that could be done to prevent or reduce hate crime from happening all together, one of those being visits into schools although a lot of people around that age won't know what hate crime is by educating them from a young age would prevent it happening when they grow up due to the fact that they have learnt from being younger that it is wrong to do and also the consequences that can happen from performing a hate crime.

A second thing that could be done is restorative justice, this would be the offenders meeting the victims of their hate crimes and having a talk about how it has affected them and what it does to people to have hate crimes happen against you purely for the way you look or the way you are. Not only will it give the victim a chance to tell them how it has made them feel but it will give them a voice, which could have been one thing that they lost due to being targeted for things that are out of there control. The main thing that restorative justice does is holds the offenders accountable for their actions, something that a lot of offenders never come to terms with is what they have done and the effect that it has on their victims but by having that meeting with the victim it will ensure that they know what they are doing is wrong and it really does affect the victims of their actions. (Restorative Justice Council , 2022)

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Here is a diagram that the Justice Inspectorate found when doing a report into how the police respond to hate crimes when they get reported. As you can see when the person decides to report the crime to the control room it has a direct link to the police who then contact the victim and make risk assessments based off the details of the hate crime and then refer them to victim support services. They then investigate them, however some of them get sent straight to a NFA (No further action) which is a clear issue, for the communities who get targeted by these particular crimes to see that their is a large amount of these reports that don't get looked into will strain their relationship and the trust that they have with the police.

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Further Statistics to how hate crimes get dealt with when reported

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Further Statistics to how hate crimes get dealt with when reported

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Within this graph above, there is a clear visual difference between the investigation period to them being charged. This shows that there is a clear gap between the investigation period to the decision to charge someone with the offence, if those involved in committing hate crimes go through that process and get let off without being charged then it will not make them change their ways and stop committing hate crimes if anything it will make them want to carry out further acts of hate crimes knowing that they will not have any repercussions.

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Is there any support out there for victims of hate crime?

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Is there any support out there for victims of hate crime?

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There is in fact a lot of support out there for the victims of hate crimes, most victims of hate crimes don't realise that there is people out there to help them and prevent hate crime all together.

Within the UK, there are multiple programmes that could be implemented to try and prevent hate crimes from happening and instead educating those who have previously committed hate crimes from reoffending. Things such as educational programmes of the effects that hate crimes have on the victims and the communities that they come from to even a programme where you meet with the victim so they can tell you first-hand how it has affected them and what long lasting impact it has on their lives Incidents motivated by hate have a devastating impact on the victim and their family. Some hate crimes start as more minor incidents, which can escalate into more serious and frequent offences. (Neighbourhood Watch, 2022) If you were to get targeted in a place where you feel the safest then it will cause you to not want to trust anyone and end up creating tensions amongst your communities.

One current programme that is running is called the Stop Hate UK, within the programme they have a dedicated team of teachers who perform training sessions that differ in length depending on what the individual needs are of those taking part (Stop Hate UK, 2023) . By educating those who commit hate crimes it will ensure that they are in fact not going to continue to commit them and can cause them to want to educate people who they may know who are thinking of committing a hate crime that it is not a good thing to do and can prevent it from happening in the first place.

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Do victims of hate crimes actually know that they have had a hate crime committed on them?

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Do victims of hate crimes actually know that they have had a hate crime committed on them?

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There is a growing amount of people who don't realise that they have had a hate crime committed against them. This can be for multiple reasons, such as a language barrier for example if someone who did not have a great amount of knowledge on the English language just moved over to England and someone said a term that was racist they may not understand what they are saying and in fact just ignore it even though it is a hate crime that they have just committed against them.

Another reason why someone may not know that they have had a hate crime committed against them is due to them not realising that what they have had done to them was purely through hate, for example if someone got assaulted by someone whether that be verbally or physically then they may not know that the reason behind the individual doing it was based off a hatred for what they look like or where they come from.

A report done by the Criminal Justice Inspectorate has found that that victims of hate crimes weren’t always asked about why they thought they had been targeted. This meant that some hate crimes weren’t recognised and recorded properly. (Williams, 2018) The issue with people not being able to recognise that they have been targeted as mentioned is that those hate crimes will not get reported correctly and therefore it means that the issue of hate crime will not get tackled correctly due to the figures that get reported may not be accurate.

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