hate crimes

Individual crimes

Individual crimes are those committed by an individual against another person

Individual crimes are usually linked to the characteristics of the person committing them

We consider three types of individual crime: hate, honour, and domestic abuse

Typical offenders

Tend to be people with prejudice attitudes (e.g. racism, Islamophobia, transphobia or homophobia)

Typical victims

Anyone who falls under five strands of protected characteristics:

Disability.

Race

Religion

Sexual orientation

Transgender identity

Level of public awareness

Grown recently due to a high media focus. Assault is punishable with a max of six months in prison, this raises to 2 years if the assault is aggravated by a religious element.

Laws around social media hate crimes have tightened in the recent years

Hate crimes (criminal/deviant?)

Hate crimes are clearly against criminal law

Hate crimes are also widely regarded as deviant. Victimising a person because of their race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity goes against social norms.