What is harassment?
Harassment is a criminal offence. The following types of behaviour are recognised as such:
- threats either by face or telephone
- following someone or waiting outside their house or place of work
- making silent phone calls
- verbal abuse or name calling
- physical violence
- sending unwanted gifts, ordering taxis or deliveries without the victim's consent
- damaging property
- doing anything that knowingly causes distress to another party.
What is hate crime?
Hate crimes are any crimes that are targeted at a person because of a hostility or prejudice towards that person’s:
- disability
- race or ethnicity
- religion or belief
- sexual orientation
- transgender identity
- alternative subculture identity, for example, ‘Goth’, ‘Emo’, ‘Punk’.
Offences can be committed against a person or property.
You can be a victim of hate crime even if the person committing the crime targets you by mistake, for example thinking that you are Muslim when you are in fact Christian.
A victim does not have to be a member of the group at which the hostility is targeted. In fact, anyone could be a victim of a hate crime.
We are committed to preventing all types of hate crime and supporting the victims of crime. Surrey Police has made the decision to include an extra category of hate crime – alternative subcultures.
How to report harassment and hate crime
Hate crime
Call Surrey Police on 101 or visit their website to report it online.
Harassment
Alternatively, you can fill in our online form and we will do what we can to stop the harassment.
For example, we can take action to enforce tenancy conditions on council tenants by way of an injunction, or if appropriate, take possession of a tenant's home.