Community cohesion and hate crime

Hate crimes and hate related incidents

A hate crime is defined as any incident which is perceived by the victim or any other person, as being motivated by prejudice.

A hate crime incident may be physical, verbal or written and can include:

• Threatening a person
• Touching or assaulting a person
• Offensive language
• Isolation from social events or activities
• Offensive graffiti
• Hate mail and offensive symbols
• Harassment, bullying and victimisation

The Home Office definition of a hate crime is "Any incident, which constitutes a criminal offence, which is perceived by the victim or any other person as being motivated by prejudice or hate." The most common forms of hate crime are racism, disability and homophobia but there are others.

• Racism: When a person commits a crime against someone because of the colour of their skin, their ethnic background, their accent or use of a different language - this is a hate crime.
• Disability: When a person is victimised because of their disability or perceived disability, whether mental or physical – this is a hate crime.
• Homophobia: When someone is victimised because of their sexuality, because they are (or the attacker perceives them to be) gay, lesbian, bisexual or transsexual - this is a hate crime.
• Other kinds of hate crime: Violence or harassment against people because of their religion, refugee or asylum seeker status is also a hate crime.Targeting someone specifically because of a hatred towards their race, religion, sexual orientation or disability is something we are continually monitoring.

Hate crimes can have extreme consequences.

• Effects on people – psychological - repercussions on the victim's identity and self-esteem; reinforced if the incident is violent.
• Effects on the targeted community – Fear within the community to which the victim identifies, creating feelings of vulnerability amongst other members too.
• Effects on other vulnerable groups – It may also have an affect on other minority groups especially when the referred hate crime is based on an ideology which is prejudicial towards several minority communities.

Reporting hate crime

We rely on members of the public to report crimes to the Police and Victim Support, to provide information to help us tackle crime.

Gwent Police can take action to ensure you are protected if you are intimidated as a result of reporting a crime. Witness care officers can put you in touch with organisations that can support you.

The Crown Prosecution Service has designated hate crime prosecutors who are specialists in these types of offences.

If you have experienced any of these issues, you can contact Victim Support on 0300 30 31 982 (free of charge) 24 hours a day, seven days a week to report the incident anonymously or confidentially and to access support, or you can visit their website at www.reporthate.victimsupport.org.uk for more information.

Support includes Emotional Support, Advocacy, Practical Support, Personal and Home Security and Restorative Justice Facilitation.

In an emergency of course, you should ring the Police on 999 or for non-emergency issues you can ring 101.

Hate crime and incident mapping report

Working with partners, we mapped hate crime and hate incidents within the county borough with the intention of establishing a better picture of the situation to help develop appropriate interventions and support for victims.

The report revealed evidence that between January 2012 and January 2013 there were 144 reports of hate crime and hate incidents in the borough, and provides an insight into the nature of these cases.

The report concludes with recommendations for further action.