The National Rural Crime Network is supporting the Rural Crime Week of Action being organised by police forces across the country between Sunday 6th and Sunday 13th October 2019.

The aim of the week is to put the work being done to identify and tackle rural and wildlife crime in the spotlight and encourage more support for the efforts ensure communities across rural Britain are safe and feel safe.

To coincide with Rural Crime Week of Action  Colchester Borough Council in collaboration with the Safer Colchester Partnership are launching their Safer Rural Communities Toolkit and Safer Rural Communities Fund.

Hate crime is the term used to describe an incident or crime against someone based on a part of their identity.

There are five categories of ‘identity’ when a person is targeted because of a hostility or prejudice towards their:

• disability
• race or ethnicity
• religion or belief (which includes non-belief)
• sexual orientation
• gender identity.

Hate crime can be any criminal or non-criminal act such as graffiti, vandalism to a property, name calling, assault or online abuse using social media.

Experiencing hate crime can be a particularly frightening experience as you've been targeted because of who you are, or who or what your attacker thinks you are. Unlike non-identity related offences, the attack is very personal and specifically targeted, which means it’s less likely to be a random attack.