Any form of hate crime is never acceptable and is contrary to the Equality Act 2010 and in law. If you know someone who has been affected by this, support is available.
What is hate crime?
Any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice, based on a person’s disability or perceived disability; race or perceived race; or religion or perceived religion; or sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation or transgender identity or perceived transgender identity.
Examples of hate crime include, but are not limited to:
- physical assault
- verbal abuse, threats or name calling
- incitement to hatred, when someone acts in a way that is threatening and intended to stir up hated. This could be in words, pictures, videos, music and includes information on websites.
What can you do?
Talk - If someone you know has been affected, you can encourage them to seek support. Alternatively you make an anonymous disclosure or a named disclosure which will allow us to review/investigate as appropriate.
Find out more:
Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) provides further information on unlawful harassment and hate crime.
Seek Support - There are a number of specialist organisations that provide specialist support, including counselling for those affected by harassment. You could encourage your colleague to reach out to such support.
- Find out what support is available on the External contacts page.
- Take care of yourself. It’s important that you take care of yourself. If you’ve heard something distressing or if something is troubling you, the University's Student Wellbeing and Disability Support and People and Culture teams offer confidential help to students and staff.
- Find out more on the support available for your mental health and wellbeing: