Hate Crime

Hate crime is defined as ‘any criminal offence which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards someone based on a personal characteristic.’ There are five monitored strands of hate crime: 

• race or ethnicity;
• religion or beliefs;
• sexual orientation;
• disability; and
• transgender identity.

Hate crimes are a subset of notifiable crimes that are recorded by the police and make up around two per cent of such crimes. In the process of recording a crime, police can flag an offence as being motivated by one or more of the five strands (for example, an offence can be motivated by hostility towards the victim’s race and religion).

The local picture

There was a rise in hate crime in Somerset in the summer of 2016, at around the time of the EU referendum, mirroring a nationally reported increase.

Recorded hate crime in Somerset, from 2015/16 (quarterly)

Source: Avon and Somerset Constabulary

Further information:

• Hate crimes and hate incidents reporting (Somerset County Council)
• Hate Crime statistics, England & Wales (Home Office)