National Hate Crime Awareness Week 2020

This week marks Hate Crime Awareness Week (10 – 17 October) across the UK.

This week is all about raising awareness of hate crime and encouraging people to report hate crimes and incidents. Hate crime remains an issue across Essex and nationally. Hate crime in Essex has even risen this year. Essex Police recorded 366 (12%) more hate crimes in the 12 months to July 2020 than in the previous 12 months.

What is hate crime?

A ‘hate crime’ is any behaviour that someone thinks was caused by hostility, prejudice or hatred of:

• Disability (including physical impairments, mental health problems, learning disabilities, hearing and visual impairment)
• Gender identity (people who are transgender, transsexual or transvestite)
• Race, skin colour, nationality, ethnicity or heritage
• Religion, faith or belief (including people without a religious belief)
• Sexual orientation (people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or heterosexual)

This National Hate Crime Awareness Week, we want to ensure everyone knows how to recognise and report hate crime. Reporting it helps you get the support you need if you have been the victim of a hate crime or hate incident. It also helps stop it happening to other people. We want everyone to stand up together against hateful, divisive behaviour in our county.

Where can I report a hate crime?

You can contact Essex Police by calling 999 in an emergency. If you do not want to report an incident to the police, you can report anonymously to Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111. You can also seek advice and support from any of the local Hate Crime Reporting Centres listed on Essex Police’s website.