Hate Crime & Cohesion
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.’ This definition as agreed in 2007 by the main statutory criminal justice agencies. There are five centrally monitored strands of hate crime:
- race or ethnicity;
- religion or beliefs;
- sexual orientation;
- disability; and
- transgender identity.
A person does not have to be an actual member of an identifiable group to be a victim; the defining factor is the perpetrator’s motivation.
Local research
Over the years hate crime has been a priority concern for some partnerships and organisations. This includes monitoring figures of police recorded hate crimes, as well as briefing for key stakeholders and exploring lived experience of residents.
An infographic for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, broken down by districts has recently been updated to include the full calendar year of 2024 (click the image below to go to infographic).
You will also find an historic briefing produced in 2016 for elected members that provided a trend over time and providing the context and an explanation of cohesion concepts. This report can be viewed below.
Bespoke briefings have also been produced, focusing on recorded Hate Crime in South Cambridgeshire and East Cambridgeshire. These can also be found below.
Further information and links
For more information about what hate crime is and how to report it, please click here
Recent research focusing on race equality was published by the Human Rights Equality Commission and can be found here
Data story about hate crime in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
Reports
All of the following reports can also be found in the document library