Race equality

The areas relating to race equality that we particularly focus on are racial harassment, communinity cohesion and the hate crime strategy.

For more information on our work click on the links below.

Racial Harassment

Southampton City Council has formally adopted the definition agreed in the report into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, "A racist incident is any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person" (MacPherson 1999).

Hate Crime and Harassment

As part of the safe city partnership's community safety strategy (2005-2008), a strategy against hate crime and harassment strategy was developed.

What is hate crime and harassment?
A crime or harassment, which is perceived to be motivated by malice, or ill will, towards a social group, by the ‘victim’ or any other person.

Factors can include:
• Race
• Faith
• Disability
• Sexual orientation
• Gender identity
• Gender
• Age

You can report an incident whether you are the victim or a witness.

Reports can be anonymous if you don’t want to leave your name or details.

Forms of harassment can be:
• Visual – for example, leaflets, posters and text messages
• Verbal – such as abuse and intimidation
• Property – for example, graffiti and damage
• Physical – for example, hitting and assaults

We take hate crime and harassment very seriously and encourage people to report all incidents.

Please click the link in the right hand column for full information about our hate crime policy or click the link in the right hand column for an online form that you can use to report a hate crime or harassment incident.