Hate crimes and harassment

What is considered a hate related incident?

Hate-related incidents and hate crime can take the form of verbal, physical and written abuse and acts of harassment and intimidation. They are perpetrated against one person or a group of people because of the offender's perceived personal characteristics of that person. This includes age, disability, gender, gender reassignment, gender reassignment, transgender identity, sexual orientation, religion, or beliefs.

Hate crime is any incident, which may or may not constitute a criminal offence, which is perceived by the victim or any other person, as being motivated by prejudice or hate.

Hate crime can include:

• Threatening behaviour
• Assault
• Robbery
• Damage to property
• Inciting others to commit hate crimes
• Harassment.

If you experience more than one hate incident by the same individual or group of individuals it could constitute harassment.

What to do if you are subject to, or witness, a hate crime

Such incidents should normally be reported to the police on 999 if an emergency, or 101 if an issue does not require immediate attention. Once you have reported it to the police please also report to us and keep any crime reference numbers or police information provided to you. You can report hate crime to us in a number of ways - by telling a member of staff in person, visiting our office during our opening hours, by phone, webchat, email or post - but ultimately, however you feel comfortable. You can find more information about getting in touch with us here on our contact us page.

What we do when you report a hate crime to us

We treat allegations of hate crime and hate-related incidents with the utmost seriousness and deal with them as high priority cases. We will listen to what you have experienced and how it is affecting you, to agree how we will support you and what action we are able to take. In many cases we will work alongside the police and other partner agencies to manage cases.

Where the alleged perpetrator is a tenant, we will investigate fully and take appropriate action against them.

Deterring hate crime

We believe that the best way of deterring hate crime is by building strong communities and that is why we invest so much into our communities through our events and funding.

We also work closely with the police and other agencies through Community Action Days and will contribute to events that support strengthening communities and tackling crime.

It is important that we act quickly to prevent things from escalating and that is why, when it comes to things such as graffiti, we will respond with higher priority to any hate graffiti.

Useful contact details and sources of information

There are several organisations that can also help if you are experiencing hate crime: