Join us to stop hate crime in Wolverhampton

You may be remember last year I wrote this post about a series of Get Togethers we held to ask tenants about hate crime.

At those events, tenants told us that people didn’t know what hate crime or hate incidents were and those that did know said they wouldn’t want to report it. They also said that we needed to do more to raise awareness.

So today, we’re launching a year-long campaign called Stop Hate in Wolverhampton. We’re asking you to join us and pledge to stop hate. Please sign up to our pledge, like our facebook page and show your support on your social media profile with a twibbon.

Hate crime is when people are abused through a perceived prejudice on the part of the perpetrator. It can be linked to disability, sexuality, age, race, gender or ethnicity. Only 18 hate crimes were reported to Wolverhampton Homes last year and nationally, it is thought that for every hate crime that is reported, eight go un-reported.

Hate crime can include physical assault or even murder, but can also include verbal attacks, graffiti or vandalism.

You may not realise but the majority of hate crimes happen near to the victim's home while they are going about their daily business and most hate crime perpetrators live in the same neighborhood as their victims.

That’s really a startling thought – just where people should feel safest – in their own neighbourhood is where they are most likely to suffer hate crime.

Our tenants are adamant that we must do more to ensure people know what hate crime is and that we do all we can to stop it happening.

Please join us and pledge to Stop Hate in Wolverhampton.

Facts and figures you may not know about hate crime:

• Figures released by the police in 2010 showed an increase in the amount of recorded hate crime last year, including a near doubling of disability hate crime.
• There were 52,028 reported hate crimes last year up on an estimated 46,300 in 2008. Disability hate crimes increased from 800 to 1,402 over the same period.  However, according to 'Stop Hate UK' over 80% of all hate crimes are not reported to the police.
• More than half (56 per cent) of the disabled people in Scope’s online sample said they had experienced hostility, aggression or violence from a stranger because of their condition or impairment (Scope, 2011).
• Sixteen per cent of almost 2,000 people with learning disabilities who responded to a Community Care survey in 2007 said they had been bullied on the street in the previous year.
• Research by the mental health charity Mind in 2007 showed that 71 per cent of respondents had been victimised in the community at least once in the past two years and felt this to be related to their mental health history.
• Around 40 per cent of LGB people say they are worried about being the victim of a crime (Homophobic Hate Crime, 2008).
• The findings from Homophobic Hate Crime, 2008 suggest that one in eight of lesbians and gay men and one in 20 bisexuals had experienced a hate crime or incident in the year to February 2008.
• Disabled people being four times more likely to be the victim of a crime than other people and twice as likely to be the victim of a violent attack.