Hate Crime Awareness Week
This week is Hate Crime Awareness Week – when we try to raise awareness of what hate crime is, empower communities who suffer from hate crime and encourage people to report it and show how to do that.
What is hate crime?
Hate incidents and hate crime are acts of verbal, written or physical abuse, or acts of harassment or intimidation against a person or a group of people because of their perceived personal characteristics.
A hate crime is any incident which is perceived by the victim as having been motivated by prejudice or hate. This would include prejudice against a person’s or a group of people’s age, race, gender, gender reassignment status, sexual orientation, disability or religion, belief or lack of belief.
Why report hate crime incidents?
If you have experienced or witnessed an incident of hate crime, you should report this to the police, as it is a criminal offence. By reporting such incidents, you will enable agencies to monitor where these incidents are taking place and help them to take action.
Westward will work with the police and other agencies to do something about it, but if you decide not to report, we will not know whether there is a problem.
How can you report a hate crime incident?
- To Westward: You can report a hate crime by completing our online form on this webpage.
- To the police: You can report hate crime to the police a couple of ways. See more information here.
- Is it an emergency?: Does it feel like the situation could get heated or violent very soon? Is someone in immediate danger? Do you need support right away? If so, please call 999. If you have a hearing or speech impairment, use our textphone service 18000 or text us on 999 if you’ve pre-registered with the emergencySMS service.
To see the ways Westward can help with hate crime, please visit our page here.