Rotherham United Community Sports Trust is a new Community Hate Crime Reporting Centres
Community hate crime reporting centres provide a valuable service to help people report their concerns about hate crime and harassment, particularly where they may not feel confident to approach the Police or Council directly. There are currently sixteen voluntary and community sector organisations in Rotherham who are hate crime reporting centres. Together, they support a wide and diverse range of community members.
What is a hate crime?
The Police and Crown Prosecution Service have agreed a common definition of hate incidents – this is any incident that the victim or anyone else thinks was motivated by hostility or prejudice based on one of the following personal characteristics:
• Disability (including physical disability, sensory impairments, learning disabilities, mental ill-health, long term illness or health conditions)
• Race or ethnicity
• Religion or belief
• Sexual orientation (for example lesbian, gay or bisexual people)
• Transgender identity (for example trans women or men or gender reassignment)
Hate incidents can be verbal abuse, like name-calling or offensive jokes; bullying or intimidation; physical attacks; threats; online abuse for example on social media; displaying or circulating discriminatory literature; damage to your home or possessions; or abuse of friendships – this is sometimes called “mate crime”.
When hate incidents become criminal offences they are known as hate crimes. Hate incidents often escalate to crimes or tension in a community. For this reason the Police are concerned about hate incidents as well as hate crimes. The Police can only prosecute when the law is broken but they can work with the Council and other partners to try and prevent any escalation in seriousness.
If you attend any of our provision and have had an incident or have witnessed an incident, please talk to member of our staff delivering the session.
You can also email us at community@rotherhamunited.net or on 01709 827767
Hate Crime on line reporting Forms
http://southyorks.police.uk/reportcrime
http://www.rotherham.gov.uk/info/1133/hate_crime/635/report_a_hate_crime