• What is a racist or religiously motivated incident?

Any incident which is perceived to be racially or religiously motivated by the victim, witness or any other person.

Victim or the witnesses' perception is used to 'early-identify' if an incident is motivated by hostility towards the victim's race, colour, nationality, religious beliefs, ethnic or cultural background.

• Racism by association: sometimes, individuals may experience racist or religiously motivated incidents due to their association, for e.g. mixed race partners or parents.

• Mistaken identity: at times, offenders may mistakenly believe that you are a Muslim or Jewish and may abuse/harass you.  Such incidents will also be considered as religiously motivated even if you are not a Muslim or Jewish.

Early-identification will ensure that the relevant agencies (such as police, local authority, schools, housing associations, NHS etc.) take into account the element of racial or religious prejudice in their investigation.

Direct racist or religiously motivated incidents

•  physical abuse:  spitting, punching, kicking, slapping or other physical injury

• threats – Words of a threatening nature, for example "I’m going to beat you up"

• verbal abuse – Racist name calling

• sexual abuse – eg degradation, rape, assault which is racially or religiously motivated

• written/printed abuse – Letters by post, leaflets or posters using racist language, abusive text messages or emails etc.

• graffiti/Racist language or images- Racist or religiously offensive language or images on property

• attacks on property/home – Eggs/stones thrown at property, tyres slashed, windows broken etc.

• harassment  –  persistent intimidating or threatening behaviour which is spread over a period of time.

How can I report a racist incident?