Background
National Hate Crime Awareness Week (12 to 19 October 2024) is a national week of action to raise awareness about hate crime and encourage key partners and communities to work together to tackle hate crime.
It has been marked since 2009 and was established after the tenth anniversary of the nail bomb attacks in London in 1999 – extremist attacks targeting LGBT+, Black and Asian communities in the areas of Soho, Brixton and Brick Lane.
National Hate Crime Statistics 2024
In terms of recent national hate crime statistics, according to the Home Office, in the year ending March 2024, there were 140,561 hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales, a 5% decrease compared with the previous year.
Similarly to previous years, the majority of hate crimes recorded in March 2024 were racially motivated. There were 98,799 offences in total, a 5% decrease from those recorded in March 2023 when there were 103,625 offences.
However, there was a 25% increase in religious hate crimes from 8,370 to 10,484 offences. This is attributed to the rise in hate crimes towards Jewish people and Muslims since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
There were falls in the other 3 strands of hate crime; sexual orientation hate crimes fell by 8% from 24,777 to 22,839 offences, disability hate crimes fell by 18% from 14,285 to 11,719 offences and transgender identity hate crimes fell by 2% from 4,889 to 4,780 offences.
West London Equality Centre’s National Hate Crime Awareness Week Plans
The WLEC is hosting a public conference alongside Ealing Council this week on 17 October 2024 to raise awareness about hate crime. We aim to establish a service to assist hate crime victims in the borough of Ealing in partnership with statutory partners and other civil society organisations.
Reporting of Hate Crimes
Crimes that are committed against someone due to their race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or transgender identity are hate crimes and should be reported to the police. Hate incidents, which may or may not constitute criminal offences, but are motivated by prejudice towards someone based on one or more of the protected characteristics that they possess, should also be reported to the police.
Call 999 if you are reporting a crime that is in progress or if someone is in immediate danger. If the crime is not an emergency, call 101 or contact your local police. True Vision, a police-funded website developed to allow individuals to report hate crimes online is another platform which can be used to report hate crimes or incidents.
Additionally, hate crimes or incidents can be reported to victim support organisations such as the West London Equality Centre by calling our designated hate crime helpline at 0800 2943 479. We can offer free legal advice regarding the next steps to be taken and preserving evidence, contact the police on behalf of victims and or witnesses and consider practical solutions to help deal with incidents or the aftermath of incidents.
