Uk Hate Crime Laws: A Historical Overview

Hate crimes are criminal offences motivated by hostility and prejudice towards a person's identity or perceived identity. In the UK, there are five types of hate crimes recognised by law: race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, and transgender identity. While there is no single piece of legislation criminalising hate crimes in England and Wales, there are three ways in which the law addresses this issue: aggravated forms of specific offences, enhanced sentences for offenders motivated by hatred, and stirring up hatred-based offences. The UK Parliament passed the Equality Act in 2010, providing a legal framework to protect individuals' rights and advance equality of opportunity. The Act covers age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.

The Crime and Disorder Act 1998

The Act also introduced Sex Offender Orders, which were aimed at "sex offenders" to protect the public from harm. A breach of a Sex Offender Order could lead to imprisonment of up to six months or a fine upon summary conviction.

The Act also specified certain racially-aggravated offences, including racially or religiously aggravated assaults, criminal damage, public order offences, and harassment. It abolished the presumption of "doli incapax", which stated that children aged 10 to 13 were presumed to be unable to form criminal intent.

Furthermore, the Act abolished the death penalty for treason and piracy and introduced changes to the criminal justice system, such as creating a statutory duty for those working in the youth justice system to prioritise preventing offending by young people.

The Criminal Justice Act 2003

The Act covers police powers, bail, disclosure, allocation of criminal offences, prosecution appeals, autrefois acquit ("double jeopardy"), hearsay, propensity evidence, bad character evidence, sentencing, and release on licence. It permits offences to be tried by a judge sitting alone without a jury in cases where there is a danger of jury-tampering. It also expands the circumstances in which defendants can be tried twice for the same offence (double jeopardy) when "new and compelling evidence" is introduced.

The Equality Act 2010

Hate crimes in the UK are underpinned by several pieces of legislation, including the Equality Act 2010, which provides a legal framework to protect the rights of individuals and promote equal opportunities for all. This Act sets out rules for employers, colleges, schools, and service providers to ensure everyone is treated equally.

The Act ensures that individuals are entitled to equal treatment when using services such as public transportation or healthcare, renting or buying housing, and accessing education or employment opportunities. It also covers the purchase of goods, such as food and clothing.

In addition to the Equality Act 2010, other legislation that addresses hate crimes in the UK includes the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and the Criminal Justice Act 2003, which allow for harsher sentences for those convicted of hate crimes.

The Public Order Act 1986

> An Act to abolish the common law offences of riot, rout, unlawful assembly and affray and certain statutory offences relating to public order; to create new offences relating to public order; to control public processions and assemblies; to control the stirring up of racial hatred; to provide for the exclusion of certain offenders from sporting events; to create a new offence relating to the contamination of or interference with goods; to confer power to direct certain trespassers to leave land; to amend section 7 of the Conspiracy, and Protection of Property Act 1875, section 1 of the Prevention of Crime Act 1953, Part V of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980 and the Sporting Events (Control of Alcohol etc.) Act 1985; to repeal certain obsolete or unnecessary enactments; and for connected purposes.

Part 1 – New offences

Section 2 – Violent disorder

Section 3 – Affray

Section 4 – Fear or provocation of violence

Section 4A – Intentional harassment, alarm or distress (added later by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994)

Section 5 – Harassment, alarm or distress

Section 8 – Interpretation

Section 9 – Offences abolished

Part 2 – Processions and assemblies

Section 11 – Advance notice of public processions

Section 12 – Imposing conditions on public processions

Section 13 – Prohibiting public processions

Section 14 – Imposing conditions on public assemblies

Section 14A – Prohibiting trespassory assemblies (added later by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994)

Section 16 – Public assembly

Parts 3 and 3A – Racial and religious hatred, and hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation

Part 3 of the Act creates offences for acts intended to stir up racial hatred, including:

• Use of words or behaviour or display of written material (section 18)
• Publishing or distributing written material (section 19)
• Public performance of a play (section 20)
• Distributing, showing or playing a recording (section 21)
• Broadcasting (section 22)
• Possession of racially inflammatory material (section 23)

Part 3A of the Act, inserted by the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006, creates offences for acts intended to stir up religious hatred or hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation.

The Sentencing Act 2020

Hate crimes in the UK are defined by the police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) as:

> "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 disability or perceived disability; race or perceived race; or religion or perceived religion; or sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation or transgender identity or perceived transgender identity."

In addition to these laws, the UK Parliament passed the Equality Act in 2010, which provided a comprehensive legal framework to promote equality and protect individuals from unfair treatment. This Act includes protected characteristics such as age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, and sexual orientation.

Hate crimes can take many forms, including criminal damage to property, hate mail, online abuse, and displaying discriminatory materials. These despicable acts are motivated by hostility and prejudice towards another person's identity or perceived identity. It is important to recognise that anyone can be a victim of a hate crime, regardless of their actual identity.

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