Tackling Hate Crime

Do you agree that the defining characteristic of hate crime is not actually hate, but prejudice? Did you know that last year, 70,000 incidents of hate crime were reported to police, the highest ever recorded, and this is only a fraction of the number of incidents that actually took place? Are your staff aware of the scale of this problem and the likely impact in your organisation? How are you using opportunities for students to explore hate crime?

Hate crimes are any crimes that are targeted at a person because of hostility towards an aspect of a person’s identity or background: race or ethnicity, disability, gender, faith, sexual orientation or transgender identity, for example.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission have produced a short film where the artist George the Poet explores different elements of hate crime and why it is important for us all to come together to challenge intolerance and report incidents of hate crime.

You can watch the 2 minute thought provoking DVD here

Amnesty International has recently published a briefing ‘Tackling Hate Crime in the UK.’ This report explores the background to hate crime in the UK, including definitions, effects and the scale of this problem. It summaries the victim-centered approach to hate crime policy and barriers to justice. It also includes case studies from survivors.

The report points out that the EU referendum spike figures released after the 2016 EU referendum reveal that 3,192 hate crimes were reported to police in England and Wales in the two weeks either side of the referendum – a 42 per cent increase from the same period in the previous year. A further 3,001 hate crimes were reported between 1 and 14 July, mainly by members of minority ethnic and faith communities, new migrants, asylum seekers and refugees. It is evident from this spike that state policy alone is not enough to foster tolerance and understanding in society, or to prevent high levels of hate crimes being committed.

Cultures are not static; they change, they slip back. Education providers play a significant role in influencing, challenging and ultimately changing society. Successfully promoting British values provides opportunities to explore hate crime with students. Interested? Take a look at my training courses on promoting British values on the training page of my website, which you can access here

And an early alert – one of my new training courses has grown significantly in popularity this year and I will soon be adding this to my ‘top ten’ training workshops on the training page of my website: ‘Best practice in facilitating student discussions of controversial or sensitive topics’. Get in touch if you are interested in me delivering this or any of my other training courses for your staff.