One in eight a victim of hate crime
One in eight a victim of hate crime
When we asked 2000 UK adults if they had been a victim of a hate crime in the past 12 months, roughly one in eight (13%) said they had experienced such an offence at least once within this time period.
Disability related hate crimes was the most common type reported by the respondents, with half (50%) of those who had experienced hate crimes in the past 12 months indicating it was disability related. However a variety of hate crimes are prevalent, which is demonstrated in the chart below.
Drilling down into the data, an extraordinary one in four (27%) UK adults from ethnic minorities have been a victim of a racially motivated hate crime.
Differences in hate crime incidents
The nature of the incidents differed with the type of crime experienced. For example, more than half of people who have experienced racial prejudice mentioned bullying (53%) as the most prominent type of incident whilst harassment (64%) was the most common offence in religious hate crimes and domestic abuse (63%) for gender prejudice or sexist incidents.
Of those who had experienced a hate crime, more than half (55%) said they had been a victim of such an incident within the past month.
Two in five do not report hate crimes
When asked about whether victims reported the most recent hate crime to the police, only half (53%) said they have already reported the crime or intend to report it to the police, leaving a significant number of hate crimes unrecorded. Victims aged 18-34 are far more likely to report hate crime(s) compared to the +55 age group (70% and 19% respectively).
Lastly, when respondents were asked about how they felt after to the incident(s), two fifths (39%) said they felt angry, followed by annoyed (36%) and depressed (34%).
Opinium Research carried out an online survey of 2,002 UK adults aged 18+ from 14th to 17th October 2014. Results have been weighted to nationally representative criteria.