While relations between pupils are out of scope of the Equality Act 2010 , if a school fails to protect pupils from bullying related to any protected characteristics, they may be guilty of unlawful discrimination.
Hate Incidents can feel like crimes to those who suffer them and often escalate to crimes or tensions.
For this reason the police are concerned about incidents and so non-crime hate incidents can be reported. The police can only prosecute when the law is broken but can work with schools and the wider community to try and prevent any escalation.
There is a distinction between a hate crime and a hate incident
- The Potential Hate Crime category is unlikely to apply if the perpetrator is under the age of 10 due to the age of criminal responsibility in England.
- A younger child’s behaviour therefore, might be categorised as a hate incident.
- There are fewer types of prejudice which might constitute a hate crime or a hate incident, than the protected characteristics listed the Equality Act 2010.
Where a prejudice related incident has been reported to the Police, it should be marked in PRfE.education as escalated.
Definition Guidance for Reporting
Potential Hate Incident
A potential hate Incident category applies if consideration will, or has been given, to reporting an incident to the police.
Potential Hate Crime
This applies if a crime may have been committed and therefore reported to the police.
- When hate incidents become criminal offences they become known as hate crimes.
- Criminal offences might include behaviour such as: malicious communications, assault, public order offences, criminal damage, harassment or sexual assault.
- If a crime is deemed to be motivated because of hostility or prejudice based on disability, race, religion, transgender identity or sexual orientation, Judges can impose tougher sentences.
Hate Incident
A hate incident is any incident which the victim, or anyone else, thinks is based on someone’s prejudice towards them because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or because they are transgender.
Actions that may be considered as hate incidents are wide-ranging and may include but are not limited to; verbal abuse, harassment, bullying or intimidation, physical attacks, threats of violence, online abuse, displaying or circulating discriminatory text and or images, graffiti etc
Hate Crime
When hate incidents become criminal offences they become known as hate crimes.
A hate incident does not necessarily break the law, but where it constitutes a criminal offence and is based on one of the protected characteristics, it is known as a hate crime.
Hate crime is any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a person’s race or perceived race; religion or perceived religion; sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation; disability or perceived disability and any crime motivated by hostility or prejudice against a person who is transgender or perceived to be transgender.
Police and CPS agreed definition of ‘Hate Crime’
How to recognise a prejudiced related incident to ensure a consistent approach.
When does a Prejudice Related Incident become a Hate Crime or a Potential Hate Incident and what to do, when.
An overview of the protected characteristics and targeted behaviours.
Our vision is to ensure that every child has the best possible start in life, so they can fulfil their potential and become happy, healthy and productive citizens.
We believe that recording prejudice-related incidents demonstrates a pro-active and positive ethos, where everyone is valued, and prejudice and discrimination are not accepted.
Identifying trends enables preventative rather than reactive work to be carried out and produce more relevant and better targeted programmes of education.
The content herein, aims to help you get the most from PRfE.education
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