What is hate crime?
Hate motivation
Hate crimes and incidents are taken to mean any crime or incident where the perpetrator’s hostility or prejudice against an identifiable group of people is a factor in determining who is victimised.
Hate incident: (race incident is used here as an example; for other types of incidents substitute ‘religion’, ‘sexual orientation’, ‘disability’ or ‘transgender’ for “race” as appropriate): ‘Any non-crime incident 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”
Hate crime: (religious hate crime is used here as an example; for other types of incidents substitute ‘race’, ‘sexual orientation’, ‘disability’ or ‘transgender’ for ‘religion’ as appropriate): ‘A hate crime is a 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 religion or perceived religion.’
A victim of hate crime does not have to be a member of a minority group 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. In reality, anyone can become a victim of a hate crime
The hate crime strands are
- Disability
- Race
- Religion and belief
- Sexual orientation
- Transgender
Reporting hate incidents
We have a scheme to support people living and working in Leeds who have experienced hate incidents.
The scheme which is called Hate Incident Reporting Centres is a partnership in conjunction with West Yorkshire Police, Stop Hate UK and Leeds City Council.
It offers anybody who has experienced or witnessed a racist, homophobic or religiously motivated incident or an incident against disabled people, the facility to report in an alternative location than a police station.
Where are the hate incident reporting centres?
The centres are in a number of different locations around Leeds and are identified by the hate incident logo. Some are in schools, Neighbourhood Housing Offices, One Stop Centres, and a range of community projects.
All information you give at a reporting centre is confidential. You can give information anonymously. Information doesn’t have to be shared, you can choose what information to give and who gets the information.
There is also a free phone number if you do not wish to report in person. The number is available 24 hours a day and has language translation facilities.
The number for the free helpline is
Stop Hate UK - 0800 1381625 - 24 hours a day
For further information about the scheme or for details of your nearest Hate Centre, please see the List of Hate Incident Reporting Centres document to the right of this page or contact Stop Hate UK on 0113 2935100.