Equality groups' perceptions and experience of crime : Analysis of the British Crime Survey 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10

The Equality Act 2010 introduces a new equality duty requiring public authorities to show due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation; advance equality and foster good relations across all the protected characteristics. The Act defines harassment as ‘unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic’ which violates a person’s dignity or creates ‘an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment’. This briefing uses British Crime Survey (BCS) data to understand the different equality groups’ expectations about being insulted and their experience of intimidation, threats, violence and crime. It also analyses the experience and reporting of hate crime, that is, crime motivated by the offender’s attitudes to the victim’s age, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or disability compared to other crime not motivated by prejudice. The briefing finds that there is widespread expectation of being insulted or intimidated in public places amongst most minority equality groups. Younger age groups, men, and lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) respondents are more likely to report being a victim of crime, and experiencing threats or deliberate use of violence than older age groups, women and heterosexual respondents. Ethnic minority groups are more likely than White groups to report being a victim of crime, but the Mixed and White groups are most likely to experience violence. People over sixty, ethnic minority groups and LGB respondents are most likely to report experiencing crime motivated by the offender’s attitude to their identity. Victims of hate crime are more likely to inform police of such incidents than victims of otherwise motivated crimes.