Wolverhampton
Hate Crime

Information on hate crime and organisations that offer support and advice to victims and witnesses.

What is Hate Crime?

In England and Wales, hate crime laws recognise five protected characteristics. These are:

  • 1. race
  • 2. religion
  • 3. sexual orientation
  • 4. transgender identity
  • 5. disability

Hate crimes can include a range of behaviors such as verbal abuse, intimidation, threats, harassment, assault, and damage to property. These actions become hate crimes when they are motivated by hostility or prejudice towards someone based on their actual or perceived protected characteristic.

It’s important to note that the victim does not necessarily have to possess the protected characteristic themselves; the crime can be based on the perpetrator’s perception.


The Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 is the law that protects you from discrimination. It also gives you the right to challenge discrimination. You are protected by the Equality Act if you have certain protected characteristics. For more information please visit Equality Act 2010 Guidance - GOV.UK.

You are protected under the Equality Act 2010 from these types of discrimination:



How to report a hate crime

Have you or someone you know been a victim of a hate crime or hate incident?

Hate crime in any form is wrong. That is why it is important that if hate crime happens to you or someone you know, that you report it.

Reporting makes a difference – to you, your friends, and your community. By reporting hate crime when it happens, you can help stop it happening to someone else. You will also help the police to better understand the level of hate crime in your local area, and improve the way they respond to it.

What to report

  • write down the date, time and location of the incident
  • write down everything you can remember about what you saw and heard during an incident
  • if you are the victim make sure you get the names and addresses of any witnesses
  • record as much detail as possible about the offender and any vehicle they might have used
  • report the incident as soon as possible to the police or to the nearest organisation that offer support and advice on hate crime.

True Vision

You can report a hate crime online using true vision. The site can also give you information about hate crime or incidents and how to report it, as well as information about the help and support available to victims of hate crime.

 

 


Third Party Reporting Centres

If you do not wish to contact the police in the first instance, you can contact the following organisations that offer a range of support and advice and will treat your incident in strict confidence (unless child protection issues are raised).

Staff at these centres have been trained to deal with complaints and to provide appropriate support:

  • Tell Mama
  • Stop Hate UK
  • Community Security Trust (CST)
  • TLC (The Learning College) - 01902 714433
  • West Midlands Police - 101 for non-emergency, 999 emergency and 111 non-medical emergency
  • Remedi - 0114 2536669
  • Zebra Access - 01902 421919 or 01902 711688
  • Ethnic Minority Council - 01902 313052
  • Police Domestic Violence Unit - 01902 649032
  • Rape & Sexual Support Service & Victim Support - 01902 572505

Case Study

The Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Team received a report from a Wolverhampton Homes concierge officer to say that the previous evening CCTV in a block of flats had shown someone being assaulted in the lifts of a tower block. The victim was identified as Mr S. and his wife and children who were new arrivals from Afghanistan. An ASB officer watched the CCTV and went to visit Mr S the following morning.

The incident

Mr S said that as he tried to get out of the lift, the perpetrator - Ms C - would not let him, his wife or children go past and was verbally abusive, telling him to "go back to his own country"; she then proceeded to push Mr S several times.

ASB officer visit

When the ASB officer visited Mr S and his family were all at home and the children had not even been sent to school as they were too frightened to leave the flat. Mr S told the ASB officer that another resident of the block - Mr M – had banged on their front door, swearing and shouting and being racially abusive. Mr S. called the police who were due to send out an officer to take a statement that morning.

Application for injunctions

The ASB officer quickly gathered the evidence together and immediately applied to the court for injunctions against Ms C to stop her from entering the block and being physically or verbally abusive to Mr S and his family and against Mr M to stop him from contacting Mr S and his family and using or threatening violence against them.

Temporary accommodation

Mr S and his family were very shaken by the incident and were terrified about leaving the flat and he said he was afraid of who would come to his door or what may happen when he left. The same day, the ASB officer therefore arranged for Mr S and his family to move into temporary accommodation overnight as the injunction applications were due in court the following day. Late in the evening the ASB Team transported the family and their overnight belongings to the temporary accommodation.

Court outcome

The court granted the injunctions against Ms C and Mr M but Mr S still felt unsafe returning to the block as he stated that Ms C would get people she knew living in the block to cause him and his family trouble as previously another resident living in the block who was an associate of Mr M and Ms C had thrown a glass bottle at him from out of her window.

Resolution

With his agreement, Mr S and his family were then moved into long term temporary accommodation before being re-housed in another area of the city.


Resources

Social Media Posters

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Support

Local campaigns

Remedi

Remedi exist to enable those accessing our services to be the people they can and want to be, through the creative and proactive use of restorative approaches.

Safer Travel Partnership

As well as our usual daily high visibility patrols and day to day policing responsibilities, the team focus on intelligence led operations, with the aim of preventing and reducing crime on the bus/train/tram network.

 

Zebra Access

If you are deaf or hard of hearing and experience a hate crime or hate incident, Zebra Access can support you to report it.

 

 




West Midlands Police

Visit West Midlands Police for more information.

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