Plymouth & Devon Racial Equality Council
Report Hate Crime
Plymouth & Devon Racial Equality Council
Report Hate Crime
A hate crime is when someone commits a crime against you because of your disability, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, religion, or any other perceived difference.
It doesn’t always include physical violence. Someone using offensive language towards you or harassing you because of who you are, or who they think you are, is also a crime. The same goes for someone posting abusive or offensive messages about you online.
What is a Hate Incident
A hate incident is any incident which the victim, or anyone else, thinks is based on someone’s prejudice towards them because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or because they are transgender. Not all hate incidents will amount to criminal offences, If it happens to you, you might be tempted to shrug it off. But if you report the hate crime, we can investigate and stop it from getting worse – either for you or someone else. but it is equally important that these are reported and recorded by the police.
Evidence of the hate element is not a requirement. You do not need to personally perceive the incident to be hate related. It would be enough if another person, a witness or even a police officer thought that the incident was hate related.
Types of hate crime
Hate crime can fall into one of three main types: physical assault, verbal abuse and incitement to hatred.
Physical Assault of any kind is an offence. If you’ve been a victim of physical assault you should report it. Depending on the level of the violence used, a perpetrator may be charged with common assault, actual bodily harm or grievous bodily harm.
Verbal Abuse threats or name-calling can be a common and extremely unpleasant experience for minority groups. Victims of verbal abuse are often unclear whether an offence has been committed or believe there is little they can do. However, there are laws in place to protect you from verbal abuse. If you’ve been the victim of verbal abuse, talk to the police or one of our partner organisations about what has happened. You’ll find a list of them on our How to report hate crime page. Even if you don’t know who verbally abused you, the information could still help us to improve how we police the area where the abuse took place.
Incitement to hatred The offence of incitement to hatred occurs when someone acts in a way that is threatening and intended to stir up hatred. That could be in words, pictures, videos, music, and includes information posted on websites.
Hate content may include: messages calling for violence against a specific person or group web pages that show pictures, videos or descriptions of violence against anyone due to their perceived differences chat forums where people ask other people to commit hate crimes against a specific person or group.
How to report Hate Crime
Locally Plymouth & Devon Racial Equality Council are working with the Police to tackle Race and Religious Hate crime.
PDREC are one of many local 3rd Party reporting centres set up to improve the reporting of hate crime.
The service can be used by the victim themselves and by others reporting on the behalf of victim. Third-party reporting has been developed to help overcome the barriers to reporting Hate crime and make it easier and more accessible to report.
If you want to report Contact PDREC by email enquiries@plymouthpdrec.org or phone 01752 224555
Other Ways to report Hate Crime
Plymouth and Devon Police Online crime reporting form Your report will be received and processed by our Force Contact Centre. All reports will be reviewed in line with our screening process to determine if a police investigation is proportionate. Reports deemed suitable for further investigation will be assessed and an officer will be in contact with you. Click here to complete online form
Strategic Work:
PDREC aim is to build a just and fair society where everyone has an equal opportunity to live, learn and learn, free from prejudice, discrimination, and racism.
We value diversity and work in partnership with individuals and organisations who are committed to anti-racism and race equality.
Charitable Company:
The Plymouth & Devon Racial Equality Council (PDREC) is a charitable company limited by guarantee (incorporated on 18 August 1999 : Company No 3827654) and registered as a charity on (10 February 2004 : Charity No 1102012).
