Sefton Equalities Partnership is committed to tackling all types of Hate crime and encourages its reporting in a variety of ways

What is Hate Crime?

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) defines hate crime as "a crime where the perpetrator's prejudice against any identifiable group of people is a factor in determining who is victimised".

According to the above broad and inclusive definition, a victim of hate crime does not have to be a member of a minority or someone who is generally considered to be 'vulnerable'. For example, the friends of a visible minority ethnic person, lesbian or refugee may be victimised because of their association.

The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report (recommendation 12) defines a racist incident as "any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person".

The definition of a homophobic incident, for example, can be adopted by analogy with the definition of a racist incident: "any incident which is perceived to be homophobic by the victim or any other person (i.e. directed to impact on those perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender)".

Hate crime usually takes place against:

• Those of a different racial origin or nationality
• People with a specific religion or belief e.g. Jews, Sikhs, Muslims
• Gay, lesbian or bisexual people
• People with a trangender history
• A specific age group (older people is the most common)
• Disabled people
• Gender differences
• School rivals (becoming more common),

The experience of Hate Crime can be actual or perceived and can include:

• Verbal abuse, threats, insults, nuisance telephone calls, name calling and every other form of verbal harassment;
• Physical assaults and physical violence which can vary from pushing to serious attacks;
• Attacks against someone's property, for example insulting graffiti, vandalism, breaking windows, theft, damaging cars and arson.
• Publishing and disseminating materials such as leaflets and newspapers (and the internet) that are likely to incite hate crime is also a criminal offence.
• Age and gender discrimination

Frequently hate crime attacks can be a combination of the above. This can occur for instance in neighbour disputes when both verbal insults and property damage occurs, or bullying at school which consists of name-calling and physical abuse.

Reporting Hate Incidents

A scheme to support people living and working in Sefton who have experienced any form of hate crime was launched in May 2005.

It offers anybody who has experienced or witnessed an incident the opportunity to report in an alternative location than a police station or to report it anonymously. We are very aware that some victims may wish to remain anonymous and respect their wishes.

Why are we recording Hate Crime incidents?

A hate crime is a violation of your personal and civil rights. Hate crimes are not only crimes against the targeted victim, but also against a particular group as a whole. Hate crimes can be attacks on communities.

Effective action against hate incidents requires that these crimes be reported to the Police, the local Council and all other appropriate agencies. Only if a hate crime is reported can we, together, take action to deal with it. No one has the right to harass, threaten or assault you because of who we are.

With the victim's consent details of serious incidents can be shared with other agencies such as Victim Support and the Police so that support can be offered to the victims and their families and, if appropriate, criminal investigations can be undertaken.

Although you can report an incident anonymously via this link to Sefton Council or at one of our reporting centres , we urge you to report it at one of the agencies where a trained person will assist you and offer support.

All information given at a reporting centre is confidential, it can be anonymously given with no details entered on the form that could identify the person reporting and can be purely for information purposes only. Information doesn't have to be shared. It is entirely the choice of the individual who is reporting as to who receives the information and what information is given.

If your organisation wants to become a reporting centre or wants more information please contact us. Our details are on our Home Page .

Further support

The following telephone numbers can also be used to report incidents and/or ask for advice or support: