Letter: Hate crime facts

Richard Lucas (Letters, 1 October) clearly doesn't understand the law on hate crime. Hate crimes are crimes that have a particular motive.

Causing someone to dislike you, for example by claiming that gay sex is immoral, is not a crime, so cannot be a hate crime.

A hate crime is a crime which is motivated by hatred based on prejudice against a section of society, such as racist or homophobic hatred.

The crimes concerned are typically somewhere on the range from criminal harassment, assault and vandalism, through to murder.

If Mr Lucas reads the police hate crime manual which his letter criticised, he will find a clear explanation, together with research references, that hate crime has particular negative effects on victims, their families and on society. That is why it needs to be recognised, and dealt with in particular ways.

For the police, prosecutors and courts to deal with different types of crime in appropriate ways is entirely proper, and part of delivering effectively on their responsibilities.

Tim Hopkins

Equality Network

Bernard Street

Edinburgh