United Kingdom

From the Nizkor Project comes the following information regarding the UK:

2.2.1 United Kingdom

The definition used by the police in the United Kingdom is restricted to racially motivated crime incidents, and assumes the following form:

(a) Any incident in which it appears to the reporting or investigating officer that the complaint involves an element of racial motivation;

(b) Any incident which involves an allegation of racial motivation made by any person (Maung and Mirrlees-Black, 1994).

The British definition suffers from the deficiency that it excludes hate crimes directed at targets other than racial minorities. Thus, other forms of hate crime such as anti-Semitism, or anti-gay attacks are not captured either by the official police statistics or by the periodic victimization survey (British Crime Survey). On the other hand, the British definition has the advantage of defining a hate crime by specific reference to the perception of the victim(s), even if this perception is at odds with the view of the investigating officer.

What To Do If You Are A Victim Of Hate Crime

One of the first actions to take is to report the instance to a local and/or federal law enforcement agency. Since many anti-religious extremists are currently under investigation by various law enforcement agencies, your report may aid law enforcement in their efforts to deal with them appropriately.

Also, it may be best to make such complaints/reports in coordination with your Church as a hate crime is often specifically committed to harm and terrify not only a particular victim, but the entire group of which the victim is a member.