Report a hate crime or incident

Learn what a hate crime or incident is and how to report it.

You’re a victim of a hate crime or incident if someone has targeted a crime at you or behaved badly towards you, because of your:

  • race or ethnicity
  • disability
  • religion or belief
  • sexual orientation
  • transgender identity

These are called protected characteristics.

Even if you do not have a protected characteristic, you could still be a victim of a hate crime or incident. This happens if someone targets you because they think you belong to any of these categories.

We firmly believe that no-one should have to experience hate or abuse, and certainly not because of their protected characteristics. 

What you should do if you're experiencing or witness a Hate crime

If you’ve witnessed or been the victim of a hate crime or incident, then please report it. 

For example, if someone has:

  • verbally abused you
  • harassed you
  • abused you online
  • directed antisocial behaviour at you
  • damaged your belongings or property
  • was violent towards you
  • threatened you
  • intimidated you

This information will be recorded and used by the police and partner organisations. They can: 

  • help and support you, or the person affected
  • deal with the person or people responsible
  • prevent similar incidents happening in the future

All incidents are taken very seriously and treated in the strictest confidence. 

How to report a hate crime or incident

In an emergency call the Police on 999. 

If it’s not an emergency, there are several ways to report it. Some services cover all hate crimes or incidents, others specialise in supporting people with specific protected characteristics. 

Even if you do not report the hate crime or incident, you can still access help from Victim Support on 0300 303 0157.

General services

Specialist services

Support for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Plus (LGBT+) people 

Galop support LGBT+ people who are victims and survivors of abuse. 

Galop has a national helpline, which is: 0800 999 5428.

Alternatively, you can email them at: help@galop.org.uk. 

Reporting anti-Muslim attacks 

Tell MAMA  is a service for people across England to report any form of anti-Muslim abuse. 

MAMA stands for ‘measuring anti-Muslim attacks’. Tell MAMA have a unique portal, where you can report your concerns. You can also record any incident you’ve experienced because of your Muslim faith, or someone perceiving you to be a Muslim. 

You can report an incident by: 

  • Phone
  • Text
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Find contact details for Tell MAMA

After you’ve made your report, the service will secure your information. One of their trained caseworkers will then contact you, to discuss the issue further. The caseworker will make sure they have all the details they need to record the incident accurately, and will offer you support. 

Reporting antisemitic incidents

If you’re the victim of an antisemitic incident or have information about an incident that has happened to someone else, you can report this to the Community Security Trust CST). 

An antisemitic incident is any malicious act aimed at Jewish people, organisations or property, where there’s evidence that: 

  • the incident has antisemitic motivation or content, or
  • that the victim was targeted because they’re Jewish, or believed to be Jewish

CST has a dedicated team that can deal with antisemitic incidents and provide support to victims, whilst respecting confidentiality at all times. They can work with the police and other services, to make sure any incident is dealt with properly.