Hate Crime
What is a Hate Crime?
"any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be
motivated by a 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 a hostility or prejudice
against a person who is transgender or perceived to be transgender“ (CPS, Hate
Crime and Crimes Against Older People Report, 2011-2012)
Offence Characteristics
An offence may be classified as racially or religiously aggravated if:
- at the time of committing the offence, or immediately before or after doing so,
the offender demonstrates towards the victim of the offence hostility based on
the victim’s membership (or presumed membership) of a racial or religious group
- the offence is motivated (wholly or partly) by hostility towards members of a
racial or religious group, based on the victim’s membership of that group (s28,
Crime and Disorder Act, 1998)
Hate… or something else?
“In the absence of a precise legal definition of hostility, let us consider dictionary
definitions including ‘unfriendliness’, antagonism’ and ‘meanness’ (Director of
Public Prosecutions, October 2008)
Stephen Lawrence Inquiry definition
- Importance of perception
- Controversial, but still a key principle
Two Types of Hate Crime
1) Direct hate crime (stirring up offences)
- Criminal liability ensues where a person engages in: using threatening, abusive or
insulting words or behaviour or displaying written material which is threatening,
abusive or insulting;
2) Derivative hate crime (aggravated offences)
- common assault;
- assault occasioning actual bodily harm;
- maliciously wounding or inflicting grievous bodily harm;
- destroying or damaging property;
- threatening, abusive or insulting conduct towards someone with intent to cause
fear of violence or provocation of violence;
- threatening, abusive or insulting conduct intended to cause harassment, alarm or
distress;
- threatening, abusive or insulting conduct likely to cause harassment, alarm or
distress;
- harassment and stalking; and
- putting people in fear of violence and stalking involving fear of violence, serious
alarm or distress
, Two Types of Justification for Hate Crime Legislation + Policy
1. Hate and bias crimes victimise whole communities of people, they constitute greater
wrongs than do otherwise-motivated crimes (+ more impactful)
2. Hate and bias crimes reflect significantly greater culpability on the part of their
perpetrators
Key Types of ‘Everyday’ Hate Crime
(Walters et al., 2016:24)
Prevalence of Hate Crime + Incidents
Note: graphs on slides
Police Recorded Hate Crimes (year ending March 2020) (Hate Crime, England &
Wales, 2020)
Estimated number of incidents of hate crimes with confidence intervals, (year ending
March 2018 to year ending March 2020 CSEW) (Hate Crime, England & Wales, 2020
Distribution of offences flagged as hate crimes, year ending March 2020 (Hate
Crime, England & Wales, 2020)
‘Vulnerable Groups’
Protected groups
- Racial
- Sexual orientation
- Faith (or none)
- Disability
- Transgender
Widened Categories (formally)
- Goth (sub-cultures)
Proposed …
- Gender (Scotland)
What is a Hate Crime?
"any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be
motivated by a 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 a hostility or prejudice
against a person who is transgender or perceived to be transgender“ (CPS, Hate
Crime and Crimes Against Older People Report, 2011-2012)
Offence Characteristics
An offence may be classified as racially or religiously aggravated if:
- at the time of committing the offence, or immediately before or after doing so,
the offender demonstrates towards the victim of the offence hostility based on
the victim’s membership (or presumed membership) of a racial or religious group
- the offence is motivated (wholly or partly) by hostility towards members of a
racial or religious group, based on the victim’s membership of that group (s28,
Crime and Disorder Act, 1998)
Hate… or something else?
“In the absence of a precise legal definition of hostility, let us consider dictionary
definitions including ‘unfriendliness’, antagonism’ and ‘meanness’ (Director of
Public Prosecutions, October 2008)
Stephen Lawrence Inquiry definition
- Importance of perception
- Controversial, but still a key principle
Two Types of Hate Crime
1) Direct hate crime (stirring up offences)
- Criminal liability ensues where a person engages in: using threatening, abusive or
insulting words or behaviour or displaying written material which is threatening,
abusive or insulting;
2) Derivative hate crime (aggravated offences)
- common assault;
- assault occasioning actual bodily harm;
- maliciously wounding or inflicting grievous bodily harm;
- destroying or damaging property;
- threatening, abusive or insulting conduct towards someone with intent to cause
fear of violence or provocation of violence;
- threatening, abusive or insulting conduct intended to cause harassment, alarm or
distress;
- threatening, abusive or insulting conduct likely to cause harassment, alarm or
distress;
- harassment and stalking; and
- putting people in fear of violence and stalking involving fear of violence, serious
alarm or distress
, Two Types of Justification for Hate Crime Legislation + Policy
1. Hate and bias crimes victimise whole communities of people, they constitute greater
wrongs than do otherwise-motivated crimes (+ more impactful)
2. Hate and bias crimes reflect significantly greater culpability on the part of their
perpetrators
Key Types of ‘Everyday’ Hate Crime
(Walters et al., 2016:24)
Prevalence of Hate Crime + Incidents
Note: graphs on slides
Police Recorded Hate Crimes (year ending March 2020) (Hate Crime, England &
Wales, 2020)
Estimated number of incidents of hate crimes with confidence intervals, (year ending
March 2018 to year ending March 2020 CSEW) (Hate Crime, England & Wales, 2020
Distribution of offences flagged as hate crimes, year ending March 2020 (Hate
Crime, England & Wales, 2020)
‘Vulnerable Groups’
Protected groups
- Racial
- Sexual orientation
- Faith (or none)
- Disability
- Transgender
Widened Categories (formally)
- Goth (sub-cultures)
Proposed …
- Gender (Scotland)
