Liberate
What is hate crime?
At present, there is no dedicated hate crime legislation in Jersey, however it can be reported as such, which better enables a clearer picture to be drawn of these types of incidents. SoJ Police are seeking to reassure the public that they take hate crime very seriously and are encouraging people to come forward and report.
Hate crime can be defined as acts of violence and hostility directed at a group or individual because of who they are, or who someone thinks they are, based on their race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity.
Hate crime occurs in lots of different ways including: offensive graffiti, being physically attacked, people swearing or making abusive remarks, making you feel intimidated or harassed, having your property vandalised, having your belongings stolen, being threatened and online abuse.
Impact on victims
Hate crime can have significant impact on the victims, their families and their community including anxiety, depression and fear of leaving their house.
We should never underestimate the effects of hate crime as they impact people in different ways. Hate crime can have physical and psychological effects and can seriously affect the mental health and ability to cope of the person who is targeted. As hate crime targets a person because of who they are, the impact has been known to be significantly more traumatic than a similar crime without the hate motivation; a person targeted for being themselves cannot change to prevent further attacks.
A hate crime attack on one person is also a crime targeting that whole community, as the perpetrator is showing malice and ill will towards the whole social group. Therefore each hate crime effectively has multiple victims and raises the fear of crime and concerns regarding safety for every person in that group.
Why report hate crime?
The Police treat hate crime very seriously. Hate crime is upsetting for victims and their friends and families, and creates division in communities.
If someone thinks they have been a victim of hate crime, they should report it to the Police as soon as possible. They have dedicated supervisors who oversee all types of hate crime.
By reporting it when it happens, it may be possible to prevent it happening to someone else. It will also help the Police fully understand the extent of hate crime in Jersey so that they can allocate appropriate resources to tackling it.
Ways to report hate crime
There are a number of ways you can report Hate crime:
- The SOJ Police: Dial 999 in an emergency or 612612 if not an emergency. In person, at Police Headquarters, La Route Du Fort, or online through the States of Jersey Police website: jersey.police.uk.
- In addition, hate crime can be reported to some of the organisations who support affected communities, including:
- Liberate. Whether you decide to take action over the hate crime that has happened to you or not, you can tell us about it. Data is collected and used by Liberate to build a picture of where incidents are happening, what sort of incidents are happening and where more work needs to be done to reduce the number of incidents.
- Stop Hate UK (all hate crime) 24 hours a day, by phone, email, text or app https://www.stophateuk.org/report-hate-crime/
- Contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111
- For support, you can contact Victims First Jersey, 01534 721111/ victimsfirstjersey@gov.je who have trained staff to support you through the process. https://www.victimsfirst.je
