Hate crime and hate incidents

A hate crime is an incident that targets someone who’s seen or believed to be different, which may be motivated by:

• disability
• gender identity
• race
• religion or belief
• sexual orientation

Hate incidents and hate crimes are recorded against these five categories in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. There’s an additional ‘any other perceived difference’ category, to align with Leicestershire Police’s recording of hate.  It’s called a hate crime if the incident is a criminal offence.

We define a hate incident as:

Any hate incident, which constitutes a criminal offence, perceived by the victim or any other person, as being motivated by prejudice or hate.

Examples of hate incidents include:

• verbal abuse
• threatening behaviour
• name calling
• offensive mail
• offensive phone calls or text messages
• physical assault
• robbery
• harassment
• intimidation
• vandalism
• rape
• domestic abuse
• arson
• theft
• graffiti
• damage
• sexual assault

Many incidents can be obvious, but others can be more hidden - such as overhearing a remark. It doesn’t matter how obvious the incident is.

How to report hate crimes and incidents

If you’re a victim or witness of a hate crime or incident, it's important to report this:

• in an emergency: dial 999 and ask for the police 
• in a non-emergency situation: contact the police on 101 or visit their website 

If you tell us about a hate crime or incident, we’ll record the details and pass them onto the police. We won’t give details about you to anyone without asking you first. Your report will be treated in confidence, with dignity and respect.