Hate crime

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

• Alternative subculture including goths, emos, punks and metallers
• Disability including physical impairments, mental health problems, learning disabilities, hearing and visual impairment
• Gender identity includes 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

There are lots of different types of Hate Crimes. These could include:

• Physical attacks - such as physical assault, damage to property, offensive graffiti, neighbour disputes and arson.
• Threat of attack - including offensive letters, abusive or obscene telephone calls or text messages, groups hanging around to intimidate and unfounded, malicious complaints.
• Verbal abuse or insults - offensive leaflets and posters, abusive gestures, offensive comments and/or name calling, dumping of rubbish outside homes or through letterboxes and bullying at school or in the workplace.

Mate Crime involves someone befriending a person in order to abuse them.

Victims and perpetrators

A victim is any person who lives, works or visits the borough of Rochdale and is subjected to a hate motivated incident or crime. A victim is also someone who witnesses another person being subjected to a hate motivated incident or crime.

A perpetrator or offender is any person who commits acts of hatred against other people because of their race, colour, ethnic origin, nationality, faith or religion, age, gender, sexuality or disability.