Hate Crime and Mate Crime

Hate crimes and non-crime hate incidents (NCHI)

Hate crime comes in many different forms and strikes at the heart of communities. With your help, we can tackle those responsible for hate crime and keep our communities safe. We're here and ready to help anyone who has been affected by someone else's prejudice, ignorance or violence. Find out below how to spot a hate crime, report it, or get help, support and advice – both online and in your community.

A hate crime is motivated by an offender’s belief or assumption towards the victim based on ‘who’ or ‘what’ that offender believes that victim to be.

A hate crime is defined as

'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 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.'

A non-crime hate incident is defined as

Any incident where a crime has not been committed, but where it is perceived by the reporting person or any other person that the incident was motivated by hostility or prejudice based on 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.’

Evidence of the hate element is not a requirement. You do 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.

NCHIs are recorded by the police to collect information on ‘hate incidents’ that could escalate into more serious harm or indicate heightened community tensions, but which do not constitute a criminal offence.

Hate crime can fall into one of three main types: physical assault, verbal abuse and incitement to hatred.

Physical assault

Physical assault of any kind is an offence. If you’ve been a victim of physical assault you should report it. Depending on the level of the violence used, a perpetrator may be charged with common assault, actual bodily harm or grievous bodily harm.

Verbal abuse

Verbal abuse, threats or name-calling can be a common and extremely unpleasant experience for minority groups. Victims of verbal abuse are often unclear whether an offence has been committed or believe there is little they can do. However, there are laws in place to protect you from verbal abuse. If you’ve been the victim of verbal abuse, talk to the police or one of our partner organisations about what has happened.

Even if you don’t know who verbally abused you, the information could still help us to improve how we police the area where the abuse took place.

Incitement to hatred

The offence of incitement to hatred occurs when someone acts in a way that is threatening and intended to stir up hatred. That could be in words, pictures, videos, music, and includes information posted on websites.

Hate content may include:

• messages calling 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 group

Report by phone

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 now.

Call 101 - Our national, non-emergency telephone number is staffed 24/7 to give you support and advice.

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.

True Vision

True Vision is a national police scheme to help victims report hate crime online www.report-it.org.uk

Visit a Police Station

If you’d prefer to speak to an officer in person, we can provide a safe and comfortable environment at any of our police stations.

If the person who is being targeted is child or an adult with care and support needs, then the behaviour towards the person is abuse and this means it needs to be reported to as a safeguarded concern.  The person who targeted or someone else can report this to Shropshire Councils First Point of Contact: 0345 678 9021 (if the person being targeted is a child) 0345 678 9044 (if the person being targeted is an adult with care and support needs).

If you are a professional or volunteer working with an adult with care and support needs who is being targeted, please also refer to our Safeguarding Process in Shropshire on our Multi-Agency Procedures pages before raising a safeguarding concern.

For more information and resources on hate crime (including disability hate crime and mate crime), please refer to the related links and documents on this page.

Shropshire Community Safety Partnership wants to encourage people to report hate crime or hate incidents either by directly contacting the police or through report-it.org

In Shropshire, agencies and organisations tackle Hate Crime and Hate Incidents through partnership working. People can report hate incidents either by directly contacting the police or by completing the online reporting form. This is part of a countywide approach that supports third party reporting. This is when a victim of a Hate Crime or Hate Incident or a witness prefers not to report it directly to the police, but still wants action to be taken and reports it to a non-police organisation.

Any information gathered from these reports helps agencies and organisations establish whether there are spikes in hate incidents and crimes or whether specific groups or areas are suffering from more incidents than others. Even if there is no requirement for the incident to be investigated it allows agencies and organisations to assess the number of incidents that are occurring and where.

• 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 in an emergency
• Emergency SMS text message
• Report online Report a crime | West Mercia Police
• Call 101 (non-emergency police number)
• Visit a local police station

Have you been the victim of a hate crime or hate incident, or a witness to one, and prefer not to report it directly to the police but still want action to be taken? The charities, groups and organisations below can offer support, advice and ways to report the incident without having to talk directly to the police:

• Crimestoppers- a national charity with a free helpline for reporting crime anonymously.
• Tell MAMA- a national project supporting victims of anti-Muslim hate and monitoring anti-Muslim incidents.
• Community Security Trust (CST)- a charity protecting British Jews from antisemitism and related threats.
• Galop- a national charity providing advice and support to members of the LGBT community.
• Stop Hate UK- a leading national organisation working to challenge all forms of hate crime and discrimination.
• West Mercia Victim Advice Line- free, confidential, emotional and practical support. Call 0800 952 3000 between Monday and Friday, 8am to 8pm and Saturday 9am to 5pm.
• Safety Net- prevents the exploitation of people with learning disabilities by those claiming to be their friends.
• Scope- ensuring disabled people have the same opportunities as everyone else.
• Stonewall- providing support to all lesbian, gay, bi and trans people.

Mate crime happens when someone says they are your friend, but they do things that take advantage of you, including asking you for money a lot. A real friend does not need to be bought, and someone who takes your money or possessions and asks you to pay for lots of things, or makes you feel uncomfortable is not a true friend. If someone who says they are your friend hurts you, steals from you or makes you do something you don’t want to do, you should tell to someone you trust right away (Mencap, 2019).

Mate Crime does not always start with bullying but it can become bullying later on, it usually starts with people saying they are your friend or acting like they are (ARC, 2013). Mate crime is a hidden issue and happens behind closed doors in your home, the person taking advantage of you could be a ‘friend’ someone you know, a family member or someone that helps you (Bristol SAB, 2018).  

References:

Bristol Safeguarding Adults Board (2018) Mate Crime. Bristol: Bristol Safeguarding Adults Board. 

Mencap (2019) Mate and hate crime. London: Mencap.   

The Association for Real Change (ARC) (2012) Safety Net Friend or Fake? An Easy Read Guidance Booklet about Hate Crime and Mate Crime. Chesterfield: ARC.